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By Order of The Minnesota Legislature of 1895. 



THE 



Forest Tree Planter's 
rianual. 




ELEVENTH EDITION. 



■'■Foresis are the Lnnos of Agriculture' 



-BY 



J. O. BARRETT. 

Secretary of the State Forestry Association 
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. 



Minneapolis, Minn. 
The Progressive Age. 

1895. 



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By Order of The Minnesota Legislature of 1895. 



THE 

Forest Tree Planter's 
flanual. 




ELEVENTH EDITION. 



^'■Forests are the Lungs of Agriculture^ 



-BY- 



j. O. BARRETT. 

Secretary of the State Forestry Association 



MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. 



Minneapolis, Minn. 
The Progressive age. 

1895. 



OFFICERS OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR I895. 



S. M. 0\\-K\, 
J. O. Ba];i;ett, 
R.S. MAcI>"ro«ir, 



YICE PRESlDE>rTS. 



First Congressional District, "Wm. Somerville, 



Second 

Third 

Fourth 

Fifth 

Sixth 

Seventh 



Alfred Terry, 
X. F. Brand, 
E.S. Macintosh, 
Wyman Elliot, 
IT. B. Ayers, 
0. A. Th. Solein, 



President. 
Secretary. 
Treasurer 

Viola, Minn. 

Slayton, Minn. 

Faribault, Minn. 

Langdon, Minn. 

Minneapolis, Minn. 

. Carlton, Minn. 

Halstad, M inn. 



EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 



Jolni I-I. Stevens, 
S. B. Green, 
\Vm. B. Dobbyn, 
0. F. Brand, 
H. B. Ayers, . 



Minneapolis, Minn. 

St, Anthony Park, Minn. 

Minneapolis, Minn-. 

Faribault, Minn. 

Carlton, Minn. 



Wyman Elliot, 



AUDITING COMMITTEE. 
II. B. Ayers, 



A. M. Brand. 



THE STATE FORESTRY ASSOCIATION OP MINNESOTA. 

— OKGAXIZEll, 1876. — 

It labors for the dissemination of knowledge pertaining to the planting and culture 
of trees, water economy and climatic heallhfulness. It also distributes trial seeds 
and seedlings to our citizens. 

Its literature may be had by sending sufficient stamps to pay the postage. The 
Forest Tree Planter's Manual is an invaluable treatise. It should be the Pocket 
Companion of every person who is interested in forestry and its kindred reforms. 
Postage four cents. 

All letters for information on the subject of forestry, cheerfully and promptly 
answered. Address, with stamp enclosed for reply, 

«rf r^i^vtrrr-^ j. o. barrett, 

All/ ^«. Brown's Valley, Minn. 

AUG 22 1910 



^- 



LETTER TO THE GOVERNOR. 

Hon. D. M. Clough, Governor of Minnesota: 

Dear Sir: In accord with the act appropriating support for the 
State Forestry Association, I herewith summarize the work of 1895. 

The 10,000 copies of the loth edition of the Tree Planter's Manual, issued 
in 1894, mainly sent out this year, has been v/idely distributed over the 
state. It has been largely called f^or in other states, Canada, and Europe. 

Early last fall the association issued and mailed 10,000 copies of another 
pamphlet, entitled "Forestry in our Schools," v/hich has been warmly re- 
ceived by the educators and press of Minnesota. 

Last spring the association freely distributed a goodly quantity of young 
evergreens and in the fall over 40,000 hazelnuts to our citizens for trial on 
the prairie, recommended for brushwood protection to our planted trees and. 
a valuable nut for the market and home. 

10,000 copies of this i ith edition of the Manual has just been issued. The 
year 1895 demarks three forward steps in forestry — tree planting to con- 
serve moisture for agriculture — better care of our state forest lands — protec- 
tion of our forests from fires by a forest fire warden system. 



EXPENSE ACCOUNT OF FISCAL YEAR, 1894 

By balance 649.47 

" Appropriation 1,500.00 

Aug. 4, 1894, to Jan. 26,1895, MeClellan Co., stock for 

loth edition of Manual and envelopes 138.27 

Sept. 17, Crown Pub, Co. publishing 10,000 copies Manual 275.00 
Oct. 3, Mpls, Book Pub. Co. binding 500 cops, in cloth . . 60.75 
Aug. 4, '94 to July 22, '95, postage, express, railroad, etc. 231.65 
Nov. 13 1894 to Mar, 28, 1895, 725 pckgs. acorns for trial 35.77 
Jan. 29, 1895, to Mar. 28, expenses of Executive Committee 50.66 
Aug. 14 '94 to July 31, '95, W. R. Dobbyn, ptg. for'y literature 366.25 
Aug. 4, 1894 to July 22, 1895, J. O. Barrett, work preparing 

and distributing forestry literature, plants and seeds, 789.00 

Total to July 31, 1895 $2,047.35 

To balance 102.12 

■^2,149.47 ^2,149.47 

J. O, BARRETT, 

Secretarv. 



The tree of the field is man's life.— Moses. 

How foolishly men destroy the forest cover without any regard for con- 
sequences, for thereby they rob themselves of wood and water! — Hum- 
boldt. 

So profound is our ignorance and so high our presumption, that we mar- 
vel when we hear of the extinction of an organic being; and as we do not 
see the cause, we invoke cataclysms to desolate the world, or invent laws 
on the duration of the forms of life. — Charles Darwin. 

The complete denudation of valley and mountain and plain on this conti- 
nent causes infertility, long drouths, disastrous floods, and at last desolation 
and death of our race. The fate of the Orient will be repeated in the Occi- 
dent unless we conserve and plant forests. — J. Sterling Morton, originator of 
Arbor Day. 

The earth is fast becoming an unfit home for its noblest inhabitant, and 
another era of equal human crime and human improvidence, and of like 
duration with that through which traces of that crime and that improvidence 
extend, would reduce it to such a condition of impoverished productiveness, 
of shattered surface, of climatic excess, as to threaten the depravation, bar- 
barism, and, perhaps, even the extinction of the species. — Geo. P. Marsh. 

Joy for the sturdy trees! 
Fanned by each fragrant breeze, 

Lovely they stand! 
The song birds o'er them thrill, 
They shade each tinkling rill, 
They crown each swelling hill, 

Lowly or grand. 

Plant them by stream or way, 
Plant where the children play 

And toilers rest; 
In every verdant vale. 
On every sunny swale. 
Whether to grow or fail — 

God knoweth best. 

F. S. Smith, author ot America, 



PLANT LIFE. 



ITS ORGANS AND FUNCTIONS. 

A summary of plant life will help us in correct methods of treating it for 
its beneficent uses. Its original protoplasm does all the work, sharing the 
cells, developing the color, the beauty and other quali'.ies of value. The 
stem is its body, holding all the organs in proper relation to soil, air, water, 
light, electricity; at the very beginning it produces roots; rising out of the 
soil, it bears sub stems or limbs, leaves and flowers, and transfers food from 
part to part, acting ever as a store house. The leaves are its breathing 
apparatus. The flowers are its reproductive organs. The fruit is the off- 
spring of the plant, its seed, its prophecy of repetition in identity. 

ROOT SYSTEM. 

Roots consist of an elongated central axis, having walled cells and other 
vessels. If you cut one off and examine it with a microscope, you will 
notice that around the axis is a thick cylinder, having numerous layers of 
soft, thin walled cells from whose epidermis (outer coating) project deli- 
cate, tubular membranes, known as root hairs, radiating in various direc- 
tions among the soil grains and soil air-pockets. These hairs are covered 
with films of water; their walls in fact are saturated with it. As they absorb 
the water from the soil grains which they touch, there are little currents of 
water flowing towards the hairs in the effort to restore the equilibrium. 
They must of course reach down where the water is or fail to feed the 
hungry mouths above ground. 

FUNCTIONS OF THE ROOTS. 

"The whole surface of a root," says Prof. Asa Gray, "absorbs moisture 
from the soil while fresh and new; and the newer the roots and rootlets are, 
the more freely do they imbibe. Accordingly, as long as the plant grows 
above ground and expands fresh foliage, from which moisture largely 
escapes into the air, so long it continues to extend and multiply its roots in 
the soil beneath, renewing and increasing the fresh surface for absorbing 
moisture in proportion to the demand from above. And when growth 
ceases above ground, and the leaves die and fall, or no longer act, then 



5 TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL. 

the roots gradually stop growing, and their soft and tender tips harden. 
From this perioa, therefore, until growth begins anew next spring, is the 
best time for transplanting, especially for trees and shrubs." 

BALANCING FOLIAGE TO THE ROOTS. 

It is laid down as a rule with all tree planters to trim back the branches 
so that the roots, more or less decreased by digging up, will not have to 
support more than their capacity will allow. Large roots of a tree serve 
more as anchors to hold the tree in place than life-feeders. The fine root, 
hairs, which men are not apt to notice, are the chief instruments of support 
and this is a reason why the chances of success are greater in a small than 
large tree. When the absorbing surfaces of the root system have been 
diminished, especially in the root hairs, the evaporatmg surfaces in the foli- 
age must be correspondingly diminished so as to maintain the balance 
between absorption and evaporation. The aim of the skilful pruner is to 
restore and preserve the natural symmetry of the tree. With a sharp 
knife cut off every marred root. This will aid in the healing-over process. 

POSITION OF THE ROOTS. 

In our naturally dry climate, the fibers of the roots should be made to 
dip down, screened as much as possible from the extreme drouth by bring- 
ing them nearer the moisture-grains of soil. The distribution of food, 
water servinsc as the solvent, has an important bearing on the production of 
roots as well as the position they assume. An interesting experiment, alike 
applicable to forestry as to agriculture, bearing on this point, was made by 
Knobbe, a German investigator. I am indebted to Profs. B. L. Galloway 
and Albert F. Woods for the statement: "He grew a number of corn plants 
in poor clay soil, contained in glass cylinders. In each cylinder of soil a 
certain amount of fertilizer was put, in each case in a different position, so 
as to observe its effect on the growth of the roots. When the plants were 
nearly four months old, the vessels were placed in water and the soil care- 
fully washed from the roots. They were then suspended in water and took 
nearly the same position they had in the soil. Where the fertilizer had 
been uniformly mixed with the soil, the roots grew equally through the 
whole mass. Where the fertilizer was placed in a horizontal layer about an 
inch below the surface, there was a spheroidal expansion of the root sys- 
tem at this point. Where the layer was placed at the bottom of the vessel, 
the roots were slender and not much branches above, but at the bottom 
they formed a mat. Where the fertilizer was placed around the cylinder of 
earth next the sides of the jar, the external roots were greatly branched, 
forming a cylindrical nest, but the inner roots were not much developed. 
Where the fertilizer was put in a central verticle core, the inner roots were 
greatly developed, while the outer ones were much less so." 

GAUGING THE WATER SUPPLY. 

These facts and others of similar nature show the importance of root- 
position, especially in our northwest so liable to great variations in the water 



PLANT LIFE. 6 

■supply, enabling us, in a measure, to control the character of our root sys- 
tems. According to the given tests, we can no doubt, largely control the 
water supply by adaptable methods of soil cultivation and food distribution, 
where food is used. We must here bear in mind that the best development 
of the roots and of the plant, as a whole, is attained only when the water 
supply approximates a certain amount, and the amount will vary, of course, 
with different plants, soils, temperature, environment, etc. Too much 
water kills our trees and all plants in fact about as quick as excessive dry- 
ness. If the roots are produced in very wet soil, the trees die when the 
water dries out to any extent, sooner than if produced in drier soil. If the 
roots are produced in dry soil, they will not live long if the soil is made ex- 
cessively wet for any considerable length of time. Thus sensitive are 
plants to their habitude; a fact ever to be considered in our treatment of 
them. 

AMOUNT OF WATER FOR PLANTS. 

The amount of water has much to do with the life and health of plants, 
varying in different species. Prof. Milton Whitney, Chief of the Division 
of Agricultural Soils, U. S. Department of Agriculture, furnishes the follow- 
ing in his report of 1894, p. 157: 

"Plants may be likened to a pump, which must have a steady and suf- 
ficient stream flowing into the well, lest the surface of the water shall fall 
below the valve and the pump become inactive while there still remains 
a considerable amount of water in the well. There must be an adequate 
supply of water in the soil for the plants to draw upon, and this supply 
must be within their reach. To illustrate: a plant may wilt in a soil of close 
texture containing 10 or 12 per cent of moisture, because with so little water 
present in the soil, the movement of water to the roots of the plant would 
be comparatively slow, and the volume supplied per minute or per day 
would be insufficient; the plant would quickly exhaust the supply in the 
immediate neighborhood of its roots, and the amount necessary for its con- 
tinued growth could not be pulled up from the surrounding soil rapidly 
enough to make good the loss. In a soil of different texture the same 
plant may not suffer until the supply falls to 4 or 6 per cent." 

'trees do best when the water in the soil amounts to from 40 to 60 per 
cent of the water holding capacity. By such capacity is meant "the 
amount of water that a given weight, say 100 pounds, of the soil will con- 
tain when all the space between the grains of soil is filled with water. For 
example, a cubic foot of a very sandy soil has been found to contain about 
40 per cent by volume of air space; when all this space is filled with 
water, the sand will contain four-tenths of a cubic foot of water. * * * 
The water holding capacity of heavy clay soils is about 44.2 pounds of 
water in 100 pounds of saturated soil. The most favorable condition of 
plant growing in such soils is when they contain from 16 to 24 pounds of 
water in 100 pounds of saturated soil." 



7 TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL, 

TURGIDITY. 

Turgidity is necessary to the growth of a plant, but its excess, occuring 
in very wet soil long continued, distends under pressure the cell walls out 
of proportion with their ability to construct new ones, and the whole plant 
soon becomes enfeebled, inviting the attacks of parasitic fungi which de- 
stroys it. The same fatality occurs when the water fails; the cells become 
flaccid, and the plant wilts and dies. 

CIRCULATIVE ASSIMILATIONS OF COMPOUNDS. 

The solid part of a tree consists of cellulose, largely carbon (44 per cent) 
of its weight v/ith hydrogen and oxygen in about the same proportions as in 
water. 

The carbon mostly derived from carbon dioxide (carbonic acid) of the air, 
which, under the electro chemical action, mainly of light, is decomposed, 
the oxygen of the compound exhaled and taken up by the animal kingdom 
and the carbon imbibed by the plant kingdom and combined with ele- 
ments from water taken up by the roots, and, by further chemical processes, 
which elude our art of comprehension, transformed into new compounds, 
such as sugar, starch, etc., which in turn pass down the outer layers just 
under the bark, ramifying every part of the tree clear to the tips of the 
root hairs, making new v/ood where these elements are deposited along the 
branches, trunk and roots. 

TRANSPIRATION. 

This circulating and assimilating process involves transpiration— passing 
out to the air. The term is often compounded with evaporation. A body 
of water, soil, dying and dead vegetation of every sort, oxidating stone and 
metal, everything containing water exhales vaporous gases. But trans- 
piration is a life operation by which the plant grows, as just described. 

AMOUNTS OF WATER TRANSPIRED. 

The amounts of water transpired by trees vary with the species, age, 
quantity and condition of soil and light. Compared with quantity retained 
it is very large. It is estimated that one acre of forest may in one year, 
store up 1000 pounds of carbon, 15 to 20 pounds of mineral snbstances and 
5000 pounds of water, and in the operation transpire from the soil to the air 
from 500,000 to 1,500,000 pounds of water. This is about half what is trans- 
pired by our agricultural crops. We can readily see what immense 
amounts of water are necessary to sustain vegetation. 

QUANTITIES AND QUALITIES OF MINERALS USED BY PLANTS. 

In this beautiful art of tree living and growing, small quantities of lime, 
potash, magnesia, nitrogen, etc., are taken up by the roots in a state of 
solution for food preparation, a cooking process, so to speak. As the water 
is transpired, the mineral substances remain in an electrically refined and 
vitalized condition, carried in the circulation to all parts of the tree as before 
described. Thus transpiration is succeeded by transformation, similar to 
what takes place in an animal body. 



PLANT LIFE. 

MOISTURE TESTS. 

The problem in hand now presents itself: How to make available to our 
trees or other plants more of the water that falls. We have partially, at 
least, found the solvent, if we can decrease the evaporation irom the soil 
and vegetations. Except where the soil is sandy, our prairie sods shed rain 
like a roof, more especially when rapidly delivered. Under reliable tests it 
is found that a plowed and cultivated field located beside one in its wild 
and unbroken condition, has a subsoil in a drouth season really moist, 
while the latter at the same depth is "dry as chips." Prof. Milton Whitney 
calls attention to an experiment he made at Geneva, Nebraska. "The soil 
and subsoil immediately under the prairie sod was so dry that it was diffi- 
cult to take a sample with an auger, both because it was so hard to bore 
into and because the material loosened by the auger was so dry and 
powdery that it ran off the auger like fine, dry dust or sand. In an oat 
field, which had been thoroughly prepared by subsoiling two years before, 
the subsoil was quite moist, although the ground had not been actually cul- 
tivated for a year. In an adjacent field, which had been subsoiled the 
previous year, and during the present year had been thoroughly cultivated 
in nursery stock, the subsoil down to a depth of three feet was so moist that 
it could be molded in the hand. These three localities were not over a few 
hundred feet apart, and had been exposed to precisely the same rainfall, 
but had been subjected to these different methods of cultivation." 

ERRONEOUS NOTION. 

Much to the discouragement of tree planting with those who have not 
studied and applied the laws governing meteorological and soil conditions, 
the notion prevails and it is put on record, that where the maximum of 
annual precipitation is 20 inches, forest trees cannot survive. The facts 
prove to the contrary. Trees enmass can stand a drouth better than agri- 
cultural plants, because they plunge their roots deeper into the ground 
where the moisture is harbored. Trees are raised in arid portions of Kan- 
sas where the annual precipitation does not exceed 20 inches. North 
Dakota has but 18 inches, and that new state begins to vie with Minnesota 
in successful tree culture. Prof. Whitney thinks it possible that with im- 
proved methods of cultivation, the conditions actually existing in arid 
localities of the west, wheie the annual rainfall does not exceed 6 or 8 
inches, "can be so utilized (without artificial irrigation) as to secure reliable 
and satisfactory crops;" if so of course forest trees can be raised there. 

VALUE OF DEEP PLOWING. 

Speaking of the country at large, Hon. J. Sterling Morton, Secretary of 
Agriculture, says in his valuable report of 1894, p. 26, "Deeply tilled soils 
provide a large reservoir for the rainfall. The deeper the soil is stirred and 
cultivated, the larger the reservoir. The texture of the soil, that is, the 
relative amount of sand, silt, clay, and organic matter which it contains, 
and the way in which these constitutional grains are arranged, determines 
the amount of water which the soil may retain from rains." 



9 TRRE PLANTER'S MANUAL. 

PROVED BY CROP RAISING. 

The value of deep plowing for tree planting has been repeatedly proved 
in crop raising. It has been found that a field deeply plowed and thinly 
cultivated will yield a crop 50 per cent larger than an adjoining field of the 
same size and quality of soil treated in the old way of shallow plowing and 
deep cultivation. 

Prof. Babcock, of the Wisconsin experiment station, "found that a piece 
of unplowed ground lost in seven days in early May as much as 1,304 
pounds of water per day, while in June the loss was nearly thirty-one tons 
daily, which was sufficient for the growth of one ton of dry matter of corn 
every ten days." 

Prof. Sanborn, at the Missouri University, took two plats of corn, one- 
tenth of an acre each, and subsoiled one to the depth of sixteen inches; the 
other was plowed seven inches deep. "The former yielded corn at the rate 
of 70 bushels per acre and the latter gave 49 bushsls per acre." 

CAPILLARY FORCE. 

By virtue of its own weight and capillary force, water is pulled downward 
when the subsoil contains less water than the soil. Such force is more 
effective in moving water through a moist subsoil than a dry one. Water 
descends, or ascends capillarily, very slowly in perfectly dry soil, but 
spreads rapidly in a soil which is partially moist. Understanding these 
laws, we can so manage our soil as to bridge over the drouth, promoting 
tree and other plant growth ^0 satisfactory results. 

ANALYSIS OF OUR SOIL. 

In his analysis of cur prairie soil, characterizing also large portions of the 
Dakotas and of the Great Plains, Hon. Harry Snyder, Professor of Agricul- 
tural Chemistry at the State Experiment Station, says, in the Northwestern 
European Edition of the Minneapolis Times: "In the central and western 
portions of the state the black soil rests upon a yellow (blue for the most 
western part along the upper Minnesota and lakes Big Stone and Traverse 
— Ed. J clay subsoil. The black top soil ranges from one to three feet in 
depth. These soils are unusually supplied with nitrogen and phosphates, 
the two most important elements for plant growth. The analysis of over 
200 of these soils made at the agricultural experiment station of the Univer- 
sity of Minnesota, showed an average of about .35 of a percent of phosphate 
(p. 205) and .30 of a percent of nitrogen. The lowest amounts of phos- 
phates found in any of these soils was .21 of a per cent, while the highest 
amount was a .65 of a per cent." This exceeds the plant food of some of 
the cultivated soils of England. "The yellow clay subsoils are very rich 
in.potash and lime. This makes an ideal combination as to plant food. 
The black top soil is strong in nitrogen and phosphates, while the subsoil 
is very strong in potash and lime." • .. 

It is plain that our soil constituents are such — clay being water-holding — 



PLANT LIFE. lo 

as to warrant complete conquest over the drouth, answering forestal sur- 
vival and growth, when we apply the right methods of soil treatment for 
water economy. 

MULCHING METHODS FURTHER ELUCIDATED. ^ 

According to Mr. Knobbe's experimentation, the best results of the fertil- 
izer, as to position, obtained when it was equally diffused in the clay; the 
roots at every change always developing best when in touch with the fertil- 
izer. It will be observed, where old orchards show signs of decay, and a 
manure mulch is spread upon the surface of the ground, that the trees send 
up little rootlet-suckers to get their wanted food, greatly reviving the trees. 
Sometimes these delicate rootlets, taking advantage of their liberty, "set up 
housekeeping on their own hook" — become new trees, thus robbing their 
parents of filial support. In times of drouth, despite the mulch, 
these surface-feeding rootlets suffer for water, to the great peril of the old 
trees depending on them for food. 

It is obvious that if the manure, well rotted, were plowed under and the 
surface soil frequently cultivated during the summer, these rootlets would 
not be bobbing out of the ground, but stay where they belong, holding their 
own deep in the soil, escaping the fatality of the drouth. 

DUST BLANKET. 

Every observer will have noticed that a rain may fall for days upon a 
pile of dry manure and not wet it but a few inches down. This shows that 
a thick mulch of such material is of slight if any advantage to a tree so far 
as the rain is concerned, unless it should be long continued in gentle de- 
scents. A layer of surface dust is a different constituency, more compact 
and therefore more protective against evaporation. The manure is like an 
open, and very porous sponge, that will imbibe much less water than a very 
fine one of the same size, and will evaporate its water sooner. As water 
does not readily spread through dry soil, a saturated layer may remain be- 
neath or adjacent to it for quite a length ot time. The special value of the 
"dust blanket" can be better appreciated by its application to any kind of 
plant culture. 

SOIL PREPARATION EXTENDED. 

Dating from the proceeding facts of stern experience, it is obvious that 
•we must, so to say, box up the rainfall in our soil, so that the roots can use 
it economically, secure from drying winds and suns. As already stated, the 
■wild soil must be first subdued, the sods well turned, crops of grain or pota- 
toes raised for a few years on the field, the culture killing out all the grass 
and weeds. The plow should go at least an inch deeper each year. Our 
prairie is naturally rich enough without manure. Where places, which the 
trees used to occupy, are cold and sour and barren, better use some rotted 
manure well worked into the soil. It would be a decided advantage to sub 
soil the fall before the spring planting, loosening the soil nigh down to the 
semi-hard pan. If farmers would do this, having a loosened-up bed of soil 
from eight to twelve inches deep, other conditions equal as hereafter de 



II TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL. 

fined, the common failures in tree raising would be the exception and suc- 
cess the rule. The clay subsoil of the prairie does not leak. The water is 
kept at the bottom of the humus; and the "dust blanket" frequently combed 
by the fine teeth of the cultivator, deeper in the early season, shallow in 
mid-summer, will cut off the egress of water by evaporation at the surface. 
The extra cost of such a soil-bed for trees will pay, as experience proves. 

IRRIGATION. 
The methods of plant culture here presented with such assurances of suc- 
cess when applied, should not lessen the growing interest in irrigation- 
There are localities in our state where it is feasible and practical. It is 
proving a success when wisely managed on small areas, more especially in 
the mountainous regions of the country. But to keep up the old methods 
of soil treatment on our open prairies, run behind, and then resort to the 
heavy costs of irrigation, is a spendthrift's policy. If it is possible for us to 
save at the bung where we have so long been losing, giving forestry "a 
black eye," had we not better mend our ways, think? Our safety lies in 
soil conservation of water. It is doubtful if irri.;ation in Minnesota will pay 
when applied to forests on a scale corresponding with the needs of the peo- 
ple. We can raise trees without it in almost every part of the state, only 
manage rightly. 

MECHANICAL IRRIGATION. 

The following es imate of the value of irrigation clipped from Farm, Stock 
and Home, means to include tree as well as the other annual crops of the 
farm. Economizing the rainfall by deep plowing and next irrigation with for 
estry, where it can be necessarily and practically applied, are the two co 
factors of the people's prosperity. 

"Irrigating small tracts of land by raising water with wind mill or other 
poweris entirely practicable. A thousand barrels of water will cover an acre 
to the depth of an inch. The Irrigation Farmer, of Kansas, reports a case 
of an 8-foot wind mill with a common 2 inch pipe and a brass-lined pump, 
cylinder 4x14 inches, 12-inch stroke, irrigating nine acres of garden, from 
which a whole family was supported, and left a profit beside. The water 
was pumped from a 51 foot well into a reservoir built in a knoll enough 
above the ground to be irrigated to flood it. The reservoir in this case was 
100 feet square, and built of earth. It cost nothing but labor. At 8 inch 
pump and a 12 foot wheel will lift from a well 20 to 50 feet deep 65 to 80 gal- 
lons a minute, with an ordinary wind. This would be water enough pumped 
in about eight hours to irrigate an acre with an inch of water. And since, 
with good cultivation, that depth of water would keep crops growing nicely 
for many days, it will be seen that such an outfit wou'.d prove one of the 
most profitable investments on the farm. This subject becomes a very im- 
portant one when considered in the light of the fact that 10 to 15 acres of 
well-watered land may produce more in a season than a quarter-section, 
drouth-striken farm." 



PLANT LIFE. J2 

LESSON OF NATURE. 
In treating our soil so, and planting trees so, we are in fact copying na 
ture's methods ever sure of success. By winds and birds and innumerable 
rodants she plants her forests where she can. The roots dip down deep, 
opening and loosening the hard soil better than the plow and cultivator, for 
they are permanent conduits for the surface water to filter into the pockets 
and chambers of the ground safely conserved for the root hairs to drink and 
carry up for wood structure. Then she covers with the best mulch in all 
the world — the healthful air and water-holding leaves that prevent undue 
evaporation, whose eventual decay feeds the trees in turn and makes a soil 
for future agriculture. She thus not only waters but shelters and enriches 
the soil with humus, but checks the winds, transpires humidity upon the air 
to green all the landscapes near and afar, and forms the lakes and rivers 
that are necessary to our farms and homes as are the heart-pools and veins 
to the human body. The lesson to learn and practice, then, is the lesson of 
forestry. 



MANAGEHENT OF FOREST SEEDS AND 
TREES. 

Forest seeds procured from the most reliable seed stores, warranted to 
be fresh, may have been subjected to unseen influences, such as partial de 
composition in transit or other causes, losing the germinating power. The 
farmer should try and raise seed bearing trees, and then he is sure to be 
safe in germination, if he attends to other necessary conditions as herein 
stated; and he should have a little forest nursery of his own, on the princi- 
ple that forestry and agriculture are inseparable. 

DURATION OF GERMINATING POWER. 

The duration of the germinating power of forest seeds is generally for a 
very short period, sometimes but a few months or even weeks, depending 
on circumstances and conditions, whether they are kept in their husks un- 
der cover or in the ground, secure from dampness and heat. With proper 
treatment, seeds of the hard maple, ash, box elder, basswood, pine, all of 
which mature in the fall, can be kept one year, or safely till the next 
spring. 

PRECARIOUS SEEDS. 

Seeds of the poplars, including the Cottonwood species, the willows, the 
elms, some birches, soft maples, etc., lose their power of germination soon 
after ripening in the early summer. Those of the oaks and other nut trees, 
maturing in the late fall, are also dehcate keepers. As a rule all such 
species better be planted soon as gathered. 



13 



TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL. 



SEEDS TO FREEZE. 

All seeds that take from one to two years for their germination must be 
allowed to freeze; hence the importance of sowing them in the fall soon as 
ripe. To summarize, they are seeds of the oaks, hickories, hard maples, 
chestnuts, sumachs, alders, barberries, juneberries, buckthorns, hawthorns, 
dogwoods, hazelnuts, beeches, ashes, junipers, cedars, plums, pears, apples, 
elders, basswoods, ironwoods, box elders, hackberries, buffalo berries, 
locusts, hollies, etc. 

VITALITY OF CERTAIN SEEDS. 

Because seeds, under ordinary circumstances, generally fail to germinate 
after one or two years, it does not follow that methods cannot be devised 
by which to preserve their vitality for indefinite time. Where seeds are 
locked under the eternal snows of the polar regions, they may not have lost 
their germinating properties. Bring them into a clime as sunny as that 
which produced them in the unknown ages of the past, and tliey may quick- 
en into life. Grains of corn and wheat, resting for centuries in the folds of 
Egyptian mummies, have been lately planted, and lo, they sprout and 
mature identically perfect as in the days of the Pharaohs. There are de- 
serted river-valleys in the Sahara desert; these and other evidences prove 
that desolate waste was once covered with magnificent forests and vast 
populations advanced in civilization. They did what men are doing now — 
destroyed the forests; since which the sands from the sea shores and moun- 
tains have deeply buried that tropical region for many centuries. In sink- 
ing artesian wells there, the seeds of the ancient flora are thrown up by the 
water, which, under sunlight and moisture, germinate, and vegetable history 
repeats itself. Earthquakes have brought to the surface a soil, buried for 
ages, which on exposure to the sun, gives birth to new and strange forms of 
plant life. Lindley, in his Botany, page 358, mentions raspberries "from 
seeds taken from the stomach of a man whose skeleton was found thirty feet 
below the surface of the earth, at the bottom of a barrow which was opened 
near Dorchester, Eng. He had been buried with some coins of the Emperor 
Adrian, and it is probable that the seeds were 16 or 17 hundred years old." 

When the virgin soil of our prairies is plowed, a vegetation springs up 
very unlike that of the unbroken soil. The seeds of such must have 
lain a long time under the matted turf. Where a territory is densely cover- 
ed with a special class of trees and shrubs, the shade stops seed germination. 

These cases among the many, show that, by some artificial and cheap 
contrivances, we can reduce to something like certainty the preservation of 
valuable seeds for long voyages and periods of time. Prof. Lindley states 
that seeds brought from India, round the Cape of Good Hope, to our north- 
ern clime?, "rarely vegetate freely;" but when brought overland, and not 
exposed to the sea fluctuations of temperature, they generally succeed. 
Dating in actual tests, he recommends for long and safe preservation of 
seeds to surround them "with many layers of non-conducting matter, as case 
over case of wood, and by ramming every other space, in such cases, with 
clay in a dry state." 



MANAGEMENT OF FOREST SEEDS AND TREES. 14 

POOR LUCK WITH COTTONWOOD SEEDS. 

Generally attempts to raise trees from cottonwood seeds prove abortive 
on the prairie. Better depend on their self sowing on the low sand beaches 
of lakes and rivers. You can aid the process, just before the cotton-incased 
seeds fly out of their tarry pods, by harrowing the wet sands till made soft 
and friable. Millions can thus be raised at little cost. 

SEED SELECTION. 

Seeds inherit the conditions of their parent trees. If the trees are 
stunted, malformed, old or decaying, like qualities will in time show them- 
selves in the offspring. The same laws obtain here as in the animal king- 
dom. Select from the middle-aged, where they are standing out quite sin- 
gle and exposed, having the full benefit of circulation and sunshine. The 
larger seeds generally produce larger and healthier plants. 

QUALITY TESTS. 

Sometimes seeds appear all right. Break some open and see what per- 
centage is hollovz-hearted or measly. If sound, gather when the weather is 
dry and they begin to fall. Take a handful at random and test them in 
water. The sound ones sink. Plant some in a pan of damp soil, kept 
warm, and notice how well they sprout. Soaking in lukewarm water, for 
a few hours or a week, according to their refractory make up, or by steam- 
ing, or pouring boling water on them, accelerates the sprouting. 

ESSENTIALS FOR SEED QUICKEKING. 

Judging from the duration of the germinating power of seeds long buried 
in the earth, and other circumstances, the essential conditions for their 
preservation are uniform temperature — moderate dampness — exclusion 
from the light. 

DRYING FOR SPRING PLANTING. 

If the seeds when gathered are yet somewhat green, do not let them re- 
main long in the sacks — not even over night. Spread them out thin on a 
floor under cover, where the air circulates well, and rake them over once a 
day, until the dampness has evaporated. When properly dried so as not 
to heat, place them in gunny or other very porous sacks, intermixed with 
dry sand, or separated in quite thin layers between dry leaves, and hang 
them up under airy shelter. 

SOAKING THE SEEDS. 

Seeds thus kept over, such as the box elder, ash, basswood,;,hackberry and 
other refractory fellows, must first be soaked by the swifter methods men- 
tioned, or in running or in frequently changed water till well swelled out al- 
most ready to sprout. The ash requires longer soaking. The soaking will not 
be necessary if you have preserved the seeds stratified, (spread out thin)just 
before winter sets in, on a smooth and well drained spot of ground, covered 
with boards, sand, decayed straw or other litter, and there kept frozen 
and moist. 



i_5 TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL, 

PULPY SEEDS. 

Buffalo berries, cranberries, cherries and others of like constituency, 
should be planted, when mature, where they are safe from the depre- 
dations of rodents. They can be kept over till spring, by the out door 
ground method just described. See that they are kept from drying the 
least in the spring, and plant soon as the ground is well warmed up and in 
moist condition. 

HARD SHELL SEEDS. 

Seeds of the juniper, locust, white and red cedar, hawthorn, Kentucky 
coffee tree and the like are difficult to sprout. If planted in the fall, locate 
them where they can have the utmost vigor of wintry freezing and thawing. 
Try the boiling water process till the shells show signs of cracking, and 
alkali of potash on the red cedar seeds, which seem to be the most refrac- 
tory of all. (See article of Evergreens from Seed.) If you want quick re- 
sults, after applying the boiling water, or alkali, mix the seeds with damp 
sawdust in a vessel, kept in a warm place. 

SOIL CONDITION. 

Grow a crop of potatoes on the field or bed where you want the seed 
planted, with such culture as will exclude all weeds and grasses. Plow 
just as deep for the seeds as for the seedlings; pulverize fine. (See article 
on Value of Deep Plowing.) Do this in the fall, so that the soil will be 
sufficiently compact to hold the future roots close and conserve water evap- 
oration. This preparation must be made with the utmost care for the seed, 
irrespective of the season of sowing. 

SOWING THE SEEDS. 

On large areas put the seeds in rows from two and a half to three feet 
apart, to give room for the horse cultivator. In beds, where hoeing is to be 
done, have the rows much closer. Select a calm day for the sowing of 
winged seeds, especially such as the box elders, maples and ash. You are 
to sow the seeds dry in the fall; wet in the spring and while the soil is some- 
what moist. Do not do this work during wet weather, for then particles of 
sticky earth may adhere to the seeds, retarding vegetation. Cover as fast 
as possible and thus avoid the drying out of the spring-sowing se«ds. 

THIN SOWING. 

Comparatively thin sowing of good, healthy seeds produce large and 
profitable seedlings. Thick sowing may yield you poor, dwarfed seedlings, 
whose stems are about the size of knitting needles, and half dead at that. 

DEPTHS OF SOWING. 

Covering too deep is hurtful to germination. Medium depth, according 
to size of the seeds, should be the rule; deep for larger seeds, thinner for 
smaller ones. Some recommend a depth equal the diameter of the seeds. 

For maximum depths, some i^ to 2>^ inches for oaks and chestnuts; 



MANAGEMENT OF FOREST SEEDS AND TREES. i6 

^ to I inch for maples, ash and box elders; 2 inches for locusts; }4 ot an 
inch for alder; }4 to i inch for spruce, Scotch pine and larch; ^ of an inch 
for white and Austrian pine; birch and elm as thin as possible to ensure 
germination. Thinner sowing of any of these seeds is practical where the 
soil remains or can be made moist. Fall sowing may be covered more 
heavily. 

LOOSE COVERING. '^ 

See that the covering is reasonably loose for air and moisture circulation 
to dissolve the food materials in the seed, and for the co operative sunshine 
to develop into new life. The less danger to the seeds occurs when the 

sprouting is quick and vigorous. Shield the seeds from hot air and strong 
light as much as possible. This you can do where you sow in beds, and 
you can also supply water at the roots when necessary, and largely regulate 
the light and heat on the tender blades. Too much water on the seedsor 

plantlets may cause them to rot. 

TENDING THE SEEDLINGS. 

When the seedlings peep out of the ground, mice, moles, crickets and 
other depredators are sure to be on hand to destroy them, Grubworms 
gnaw at the tender crowns; ants and other insects, some of them scarcely 
discernible by the naked eye, suck the very life out of the roots and stems; 
others eat up the leaves. 

What is the remedy? Try wood ashes sprinkled on; it helps; so does 
sawdust wet with carbolic acid. Make a weak solution of Paris green or 
kerosine emulsion, and sprinkle on the leaves. 

KEEPING OUT THE WEEDS. 

It must be done or losses ensue. Where the seeds were sown broad 
cast on the beds, of course they must be pulled up by hand and at as young 
a stage of their growth as possible. If they were put in rows, the hoe 
comes into play very handy and effectual. On the field of seedlings com- 
ing up in rows, the cultivator soon dispatches the greater part. In with it 
just as soon as the weeds peep up. 

RAISING EVERGREENS FROM SEED. 

"Good seed must be procured of the previous season's crop," says Chas. 
F. Gardner, of Osage, Iowa, a reliable nursery man of twenty five years ex- 
perience. "Avoid seed th.it is old. Make examination and see that the 
germs are plump and sound. The seeds of the pines, spruces and firs can 
be tested in the winter the same way you would test wheat, oats or barley, 
to find the number of grains that will freely germinate in a given number 
of seeds. Seeds of the evergreens mentioned should be kept in a cool, dry 
room until time to plant arrives. Soak in warm water from twenty-four to 
thirty six hours before planting. Seeds of the arbor vitse should be strati- 
fied as soon as picked from the tree; drying destroys their vitality. Red 



17 TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL. 

cedar and juniper seed should be stratified as soon as gathered and re- 
main in the stratified state one year before planting." 

He recommends the same preparation of soil as herein given — deep fall 
plowing and pulverizing in the fall, and in about a week thence throwing 
the ground up in rough beds running east and west, making them, when 
finished, four feet wide and four to six inches above the ground level, the 
alleys between being two feet wide. 

COVER FOR THE SEEDS 

"Set good strong posts eight feet apart each way over the entire ground 
to be planted. Set them from 2^ to 3ft. in the ground and seven feet high 
from the ground up. Brace the outside row of posts all round. Then run 
heavy galvanized wire on top of each row of posts, north and south, and 
east and west, fasten securely on top of each post where the wires cross. 
Cover the whole top with common wire-lath fencing, made with one twist 
of wire less than common between the lath and bring them close together. 
Enclose the sides in the same way, fastening everything securely with 
staples to the posts. Instead of using lath, brush can be used by placing 
the wires two feet apart, and weaving and tying brush to them. The shade 
must be evenly distributed so that half or little more than half of the rays of 
the sun will be intercepted. 

SIZE OF BEDS. 

"After finishing your shading, go all over your beds with a cultivator and 
then let them alone till spring comes and the ground is dry enough to work 
well. In the spring scatter a liberal dressing of wood ashes all over the 
beds; then pulverize thoroughly to the depth of four inches; finish making 
the beds, having the edges straight, and the beds four feet wide and an inch 
or so higher in the middle than at the edges. 

MANAGING THE SEEDS. 

"Sow broadcast and have three or four seeds to the square inch. After 
sowing a bed, run a common sized roller over it until every seed is pressed 
firm into the soil. Cover the whole bed with light colored, fine, clean sand 
to the depth of one quarter of an inch for the spruces, Scotch pine and firs, 
and about one-half inch for seeds like white pine. 

"Red cedar and arbor vita; seed is taken from the place where they are 
stratified, and sown sand and all, then rolled and covered as the others, 
with the exception that the arbor vitae is just barely covered with the sand 
and pulverized dry moss is sifted over them to a depth of a little less than 
one quarter of an inch, and the bed carefully sprinkled with water through 
a fine hose. After every rain the beds must be looked after and sand ap- 
plied again wherevei it has washed off. The seeds germinate from ten 
to twenty days after planting. All weeds must be pulled out by hand as 
fast as they appear as the beds must be kept perfectly clean. The object 
in having the sides enclosed as well as the top is to keep out rabbits, dogs. 



MANAGEMENT OF FOREST SEEDS AND TREES. i8 

poultry and other predators. A dog or rabbit merely walking over a bed 
when the trees are coming up will destroy tliousands, 

SPRINKLING THE BEDS. 

"While the little trees are coming up, if the weather is dry, the beds must 
be carefully sprinkled every evening. Use just enough water to thoroughly 
dampen the sand on the beds. Have some dry sand stored away, so that 
during long spells of rainy, damp, foggy weather, you can sprinkle the beds 
with it after each shower. This coating of dry sand should be very thin, 
not over one-thirtieth of an inch deep. Pull out the weeds before they form 
the second set of leaves. Keep the alleys clean with the use of a hoe. 

DISTANCE FROM SHELTER BELTS. 

"The ground occupied by the seed beds should be at least six or eight 
rods from any building, trees, hedges or other windbreaks. A windbreak 
is a good thing to have round your seed beds, if at a proper distance. I 
prefer a distance of about twenty rods or more to secure good air drainage. 
The beds must be constantly watched until the little plants have formed 
their true leaves. The most important objects to keep in mind are, — ist. 
The birds must be kept off. 2nd. The weeds and grass must be pulled. 
3rd. If the weather is too dry sprinkle, if too damp use the dry sand. 

FALL TREATMENT. 

"After the true leaves have formed, the plants require but little attention 
except that weeding must be kept up. When the ground begins to freeze 
in the fall, cover all the beds with wild hay; use just enough to cover them, 
and no more. This is removed the latter part of the following April, and 
the trees will require no attention during the summer except to be kept free 
from weeds. The next fall treat the beds to another covering of hay, and 
the following spring you will have, if you have closely followed my direc- 
tions, in spite of possibly some severe losses, 2,000 or more trees on each four 
feet length of bed, two years old, and from three to ten inches in height, 
ready to be transplanted." 

NUT PLANTING. 

An experiencedwriter, in Garden and Forest, gives the following valuable 
instruction for nut planting: "The acorns of the white oak, Quercus alba, 
for instance, often crack and sprout and show the so-called root before the 
fruit falls from the tree. If these acorns are gathered and allowed to dry 
for a few weeks before planting, it is unlikely that any of them will grow. 
The same result follows in nature, if they fall on ground that is hard and 
dry and continue so for some time afterwards; but if the ground is moist 
the radicle or incipient root will soon enter it and be secured from drying, 
unless the soil itself should be deprived of moisture. What is true of the 
white oak is true of other species, although often in a much less marked de- 
gree. Some of the black oak group, for instance, bear acorns which are 
slower in germinating and appear to preserve their vitality better under ad- 
verse conditions. 



19 TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL, 



METHOD OF PRESERVING THE NUTS. 

"It is destructive to the vegetative power of all acorns collected in the 
autumn to keep them uncovered in an ordinary dry room to be planted in 
spring. But any of them may be preserved for months, if simply packed 
with moist, but not wet sand, soil or moss, and kept in a cool temperature, 
such as would prevail under a light covering of leaves or soil in the open 
air. Similar treatment must be given to hazelnuts, chestnuts and beech- 
nuts. In all cases care should be taken to mix in plenty of soil, or to place 
the nuts in layers so that they do not touch each other, and any tendency to 
heat and consequent moulding should be guarded against. Butternuts, 
walnuts and hickory nuts will not grow readily, or at all, if allowed to be- 
come thoroughly dried or cured, although the kernels may preserve a fresh 
appearance for years after germinative power is lost. They will, however, 
keep their vitality much better and longer than acorns under the sanje 
conditions. 

"As a rule, direct planting in the open ground as soon as the seed is col- 
lected is to be preferred, whenever practicable, for most kinds of nuts and 
acorns. 

PREDATORS. 

"Among objections to this system are (i) the liability of the larger nuts to 
destruction by squirrels, of the thinner shelled ones by mice and some 
other rodents, or by birds; and {2) the action of frost in heaving the nuts 
out of the ground. Where the predators can be guarded against, the heav- 
ing action of the frost can be obviated by a covering of leaves or boards 
laid over the seed. Some growers aim to plant after hard freezing weather 
has set in, because there is then less liability to disturbance by animals. In 
this system of planting an extra quantity of seed is required to allow for 
failures or mishaps, just as is the rule with many field crops. 

BETTER PLANT THE NUTS. 

"Walnuts, hickories and oaks generally form long tap roots, and some 
persons consider it an advantage to have the seed planted where the trees 
are to remain permanently, as it is generally found expedient to cut the tap 
root when transplanting. When the seed is planted where the tree is to re- 
main, experiments have shown that these undisturbed trees make a much 
faster growth, in their early years at least, than those whose main roots 
have been cut." 

THINNING OUT THE SEEDLINGS, 

Despite the precaution the seeds are apt to come up too thick. It so, pull 
out the superfluous plants, when about four to six inches high. Don't leave 
the "fittest" crowding and choking each other. But save what is not 
wanted in those rows. Why not? They cost too much and are too precious 
to throw away. Fast as pulled, put them compact in a pail or tub of water. 
1 'nder some shade cut the tap roots off about two inches, and immediately 



MANAGEMENT OF FOREST SEEDS ANDTREES. 20 

plant in newly prepared beds. Shade and water ihem vigilantly. Start 
them that very midsummer, growing again, well thinned. There is a way 
to do this and not lose them. 

REMOVING THE PLANTS. 

If rightly cultivated, thinning as the season wanes, stopping about the 
middle of July so that the cells can have time to ripen for the winter when 
the leaves begin to fall in October, your trees are plump and large, and 
sound to the very tips. They may be in a good condition to endure the 
winter, protected by. the snow, trapped by the weeds, then sprouted up after 
you housed the cultivator. But with the best of care, one year old seedlings 
are apt to be tender and liable to be hurt by freezing and thawing wintry 
nights and days. If you want them for the market or replanting on your 
own or neighbors' grounds, next spring, better remove them in October. 
Avoid pulling them up; it breaks too many tops and roots, and strains your 
back, too. Start the roots with a well scoured spade, or the tree digger's 
knife, like a plow drawn by two horses astride the row, cutting the soil just 
under the roots; in either method leaving the trees yet in the ground. Then 
they are easily taken out, classified and counted, under care not to expose 
the roots. 

HEELING-IN. 

Select a well- drained spot; dig a trench of suitable length and depth 
corresponding to size of your trees. Throv/ the dirt up like a roof. With a 
sharp knife cut off all broken and badly bruised parts of the roots. Thin 
out the plants side by side in the trench, their stalks lying impact on the 
slant. Sprinkle the dirt among the roots fine; shovel on enough for anoth- 
er ground-roof and another tier, and so on till all are buried. Press the 
earth down gently. After the ground is well frozen, cover the tips with 
some kind of litter. By spring the cuts and broken parts of the roots 
have started to heal over, and you have saved so much time. 

SAVING FROZEN PLANTS. 

If by any mishap, plants get frozen, when out of the ground, place them 
immediately in a dark cellar and allow the frost to come out slowly. Any 
frozen plants, flowering as well as small fruits, can thus be restored to vital 
healthfulness, if done before any thawing in sunlight occurs. 

REPLANTING IN THE SPRING. 

The soil must be in proper condition as described, before a singletree is 
taken out of the ground, and the tools put in order. Wait until the frost 
is out of the way and the soil is warmed and electrified by the sun. Plant 
nothing while the ground is in a mortar -like condition, or when the water 
will collect in the hole. If you do, the soil particles will harden on the 
roots, greatly injuring the growth. A warm, moist soil is one of the sureties 
of success. 

As the trees are taken out of their heeling-in bed, with that sharp knife, 



21 TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL, 

again cut off all decayed and other unhealthy parts of the roots. Mix cow 
manure, clay and water in about equal proportions, and puddle the roots. 
Do not even then expose them to hot winds or suns. A little carelessness 
in this respect may lose one half or more of your trees. Use a spade or 
shovel fork in planting. Spread the roots out natural, insert an inch or two 
deeper than they grew, and with a downward trend to be safe in the mois- 
ture when the summer drouth comes on. When the soil is properly worked 
impact among the roots, press the earth firmly around the plant, and with 
a flip of the tool leave a thin layer of loose dirt on the surface. 

SAFE CULTIVATION. 

Again attention is called to the cultivation of trees, applicable alike to 
all other plants. We have been considering the needs of one-year seed- 
lings, say ash, box elder and other deciduous trees. In a few days weeds 
show their impious heads. Drag the harrow right over the trees, before 
the leaves have unfolded. It will destroy the weeds, and help the trees the 
same as it does for the sprouting of potatoes. You can safely do this two 
or three times, and save much hard labor. Stop that kind of business when 
the leaves forbid you. Then follow with the cultivator, killing the weeds 
and grasses, stirring and aerating the soil, thin, thinner, thinnest fast as the 
summer days come and go. Do not prolong this necessary work beyond 
the middle of July, as before stated. About that time the cells of the plants 
have attained their full development. Let them have a chance to ripen 
and be able to face the music of Old Boreas. Let the new weeds grow. 
They and the snow are providential now. 

PLANTING EVERGREENS. 

What is necessary for deciduous trees in respect to preserving them from 
the damaging effects of exposure, is imperative in handling evergreens. 
Bright drying suns and winds gum up the roots and limbs which stops the 
circulation and kills the plant. Do not expose it a single minute. Plant 
and cultivate as instructed, except the harrow must not be dragged over the 
evergreens. There may be hours and days when it is necessary to shade 
them. 

SIZE OF EVERGREENS TO PLANT. 

For field planting where the cultivator must be used, better put in ever- 
greens from six to twelve inches high. For the lawn or a shelter belt 
against the wind, saving time of growth, trees that are not over three feet, 
and such as are nursery grown and well rooted, are recommended. 

CUTTINGS. 

If the season ensures moist ground, cuttings may prove a success. Mil- 
lions of willows, cottonwoods and other poplars have been annually propa- 
gated in Minnesota. But it is not the surest way as a rule. Success has 
sometimes followed if cut in the late fall and buried for spring planting 
If you have the trees handy, cut in the spring just as the buds begin to 



MANAGEMENT OF FOREST SEEDS AND TREES. 22 

swell, and put in the ground immediately. Select the limbs or shoots of 

last'year's growth that are well ripened up. Cut from 8 to 10 inches long. 

Sink them into the ground well nigh to the tip. Press the earth around 
tight. Cultivate as you do the seedlings. 

SURER WAY OF SPROUTING CUTTINGS. 

Plow furrows eight to ten inches deep, and, while the ground is fresh, 
bury your cuttings and even long poles, notched here and there for points 
of sprouting, and plow them under. This method keeps the cuttings down 
in the moisture, where they are less endangered by dry weather. 

ELIMINATING THE ALKALI. 

Speaking of the ill-luck some men have in raising the Cottonwood on cer- 
tain kinds of soil, Col. John H. Stevens, a veteran forester, says: "It will 
not live in soil strongly impregnated with alkali; but when this element is 
eliminated by culture long enough, we shall have better luck with this 
tree" No tree can be healthy and be compelled to fasten its roots in such soil. 
Alkaline water hurts them as badly as it does a human being. The fol- 
lowing couplet is ever an applicable truism:" 

"No culture without forests; 

No forests without culture." 

PLANTING LAWN AND STREET TREES. 

In planting trees that range from eight to ten feet high, select from the 
nursery grown, if possible, such as are symmetrical, and well foliaged. Re- 
tain as much of the mother dirt impact in the roots as possible, and preserve 
the little fibers and root hairs, for these are life- supporters. In removing, 
cover with moist bags or mosses. The usual method of treatment is to lop 
off the whole top, leaving nothing but a bare pole. 

It is then an unsightly thing, and generally has unsightly limbing — too 
thick and ring-shaped. A better way is to select trees that are grown more 
in the open, having stronger and less spiring trunks, that will not need to 
be decapitated, and prune them for health and beauty the year before trans- 
planting, so that you can give them some lungs at the start. Then they 
will shape themselves to order and be a joy of perspective as long as they 
live; and they will be more likely to live then. The practical method of 
planting such trees, and the aftercare, are thus summarized by Prof. Fer- 
now. Chief of the Forestry Division: 

"Holes are best made before the trees are brought to the ground. They 
should be some deeper than the depth of the root system, but twice as large 
around as seems necessary, to facilitate penetration of rains and develop- 
ment of rootlets through the loosened soil. Place the top soil, which is bet- 
ter (being richer in easily assimilated plant food) to one side, the raw soil 
from the bottom to the other side; in filling back bring the richer soil to the 
bottom. If it be practicable, improve a heavy, loamy soil by adding to and 
mixing with it looser sandy soil, or a loose poor soil by enriching it with 
loam or compost. Keep all stones out of the bottom; they may be used 



23 TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL, 

above the roots, or better, on the surface. Providing proper drainage is the 
best means of improving ground for tree planting. Use no manure except 
as a top dressing. 

WATERING THE TREES. 

"The practice of using water while planting can hardly be said to be a 
good one, unless the water is very carefully applied with a 'hose' after the 
soil is well filled in and packed around the fibrous roots. Water, after the 
transplanting (and perhaps before the last shovels of earth are filled in), 
especially if the soil was dry, is useful and should be applied during the hot 
season, choosing the late afternoon or evening for applying it. Any mulch 
of waste material, straw, or better, wood shavings or chips, sawdust, or even 
stones simply placed around the foot of the tree, is of excellent service in 

.ecking evaporation." 

Stay the tree firmly; tie so as not to injure it; encase it in a box or heavy 
wire-netting; chastise the man who makes it a hitching post, or the boy who 
uses it for a climbing pole. 

TRANSPLANTING LARGE TREES. 

In transplanting large forest or fruit trees, first dig the monster holes the 
fall before planting, where you want the trees to stand. In the fall dig a 
round trench three or four feet from the trunk of the tree, going some 
depth below the roots; see that the trench is drained of standing water. 
When the disk of earth enclosing the soil has been frozen into a solid mass, 
it may be pried up, without disturbing the roots, and the whole removed by 
a team to a new site with but little difficulty. A large coarse canvas is 
generally tied around the roots while in transit. In Minnesota they are 
usually transplanted in the early spring, while the snow is on the ground 
for they can then be more easily handled. By tackle-and-fall they are 
placed in their holes and the dirt filled in compact. The trees are stayed 
with heavy timbers or wires, so as not to chafe the bark. When they wake 
up some sunny morning, they don't know that anything has happened, ex' 
cept changed to more aristocratic quarters. 



ADAPTATION TO CLIMATIC ENVIRONMENT. 

In selection, do not calculate that because trees in the native forests grow 
on the same parallel of latitude or about the same altitude as where you live 
on the open prairie, that they must be adaptably hardy. Enduring and resist- 
ing qualities are wonderfully modified by dense companionship. Trees from 
the nursery, more or less exposed to the winds and storms, are far hardier 
and contain more assurance of surviving the removal, because they have 
more fibrous roots and hardened up foliage. 

We should calculate for our trees as we do for our agricultural seeds — 
study the local ranges, the rainfall, the temperature, the atmospheric 

Note.- In ti-.-in-jiljuiiini.' lai^e tr(jj'.- tlu' .lilt dim out in ilir fall must U,- tlipiwii back to 
remain uiii il sprjng. 



ADAPTATION TO CLIMATIC ENVIRONMENT. 24 

humidity. From naturally wet soil to a dry, or the reverse, is not adapta- 
ble. Correspondences in essentials are one of the guarantees of success. 
Trees or seeds from cold and dry regions possess hardy qualities. Some of 
those well meaning fellows out West gather seeds of the Douglas spruce 
for instance, from the humid and semi-tropical Pacific Slope, and sell them 
to our prairie people on the claim of adaptability. Failure is certain. That 
species of spruce is to be sought, but it is the unfit, unless the plants or 
seeds are collected from the dry, cold regions of the Rockies. Toughness 
tenacity, durability — these qualities inhere in seeds and plants in exposed 
and trying localities. In this respect a marked difference obtains even in 
our state. We should always calculate for environment in our selection. 

ADAPTATION OF MINERAL CONSTITUENTS. 

The granular structure of the soil, the movement of water in it, the depth 
and moisture conditions in respect to the roots — all such matters are of 
great importance in plant life and growth. The mineral constituents must 
be earnestly studied with an eye to success. The ash will grow in almost 
any soil, feebly if cold and sour; but the better way is to "tame" it to order 
by culture and fertilization. 

The black walnut or butternut may soon perish in such soil; it calls for 
rich, deep, moist, warm soil; so does the box elder, the soft maple, the bass- 
wood and all light needing species. 

The Cottonwood will soon give up the ghost in a thin, dry soil. You can 
trust the ash there, but it asks for room to send its tap root down to the 
moisture. 

Most of the oaks need well drained soil; the swamp white oak thrives 
best in a wet, alluvial soil; clay is a help to it. 

The blackjack and bear oaks do well on barren lands. 

The red flowering maple clings to the alluvial low banks of the rivers. 

The hard or sugar maple flourishes best on the hilly sides, in soils that 
are stony but fertile, cold and humid. 

The birches, especially the white and so the poplars, do well on the burnt 
districts, but more secure under leaf mulch. 

The woodland arbor vit^ will thrive on the swamp knolls, and even on 
shaly stone where the soil is but a mere skim, if plenty of shade is over it 
and the water-drops ooze under the leafy humus; but has to struggle for life 
if transplanted into the rich and drier soil of the open prairie, but does well 
{here if first acclimated in the nursery. 

The pines and spruces have a wonderful capacity of adaptation to different 
soils; will even live on ledges, if they can penetrate their roots into the 
crevices filled with damp soil washed in from the hillside. 

The bull and jack pines will grow and do well in sandy soils. 

ADAPTATION TO THE CORNFIELD, 

Using good common sense, some of our prairie farmers plant their seed- 
hngs in the alternate spaces of the corn hills, thus putting the trees eight 



2 5 TRRE PLANTER'S MANUAL. 

feet apart with a hill of corn between them. Thisarrangement affords clean 
culture and just the right amount of shade. The cornstalks are allowed to 
remain on the plantation through the winter. Next spring new trees are 
planted, leaving them in rows four feet apart. The method is a success. 

ADAPTATION TO SITE. 

Every orchardist knows that apple trees do best on northern slopes; bet- 
ter on eastern than on western or southern slopes. In South Africa the 
southern slopes are preferable, for the winter in the south temperate zone 
occurs there when it is mid-summer in the north temperate. The same ad- 
vantages occur to most of forest trees when planted on the more shaded 
places, where they can better shelter themselves from hot winds and be less 
liable to sun-scalds. The slope, if any, the aspect, or exposure, the sur- 
roundings have a potent influence upon the local climatic conditions. Vari- 
ations in soil-mixture and exposures to forests are special characteristics of 
hollows and other low lands. 

MIXED PLANTATION. 

From these data it is plain that a mixed plantation of trees, properly bal- 
anced for shade, made up of several kinds adapted to the soil, have 
many advantages over a pure plantation, made of one kind. It is more 
picturesque, more preservative of soil conditions, requisite to mutual growth, 
and less liable to injury from fires, winds and insects, and more readily re- 
produced when thinned out. 

SELECTION OF THE "FITTEST." 

Dr. H. A. Tomlinson, superintendent of the St. Peter State Hospital , 
writing the author, inquires in respect to "the kind of trees best suited to 
this locality of the state, for foliage and hardihood, and also what flowering 
shrubs there are which will grow in the climate of Minnesota. "We have on 
the grounds principally, elms and box elders, and we would like if possible 
to increase the variety of trees. * * * Concerning the shrubs, I would 
like to secure a sufficient variety so as to have them come in bloom succes 
sively; so grouping them that the bloom of one variety would succeed that 
of another over a considerable period in the spring." 

The lists here given are not based upon latitude or elevation, but upon 
actual tests in divers soils and under trying influences of environment. It 
is believed that most of them will do well at St. Peter and the regions there 
about. Attention is respectfully called to the preceding article in respect 
to the laws of adaptation , 

TREES RECOMMENDED FOR GENERAL PLANTING. 

Green Ash, Fraxinus viridis; any good soil; seed ripe in Oct. 

White Ash, F. alba;Oc\.. 

Box Elder, Negundo aceroides, reliable; Sept, 

White Elm, Ulmus Ainericana; clean, majestic; June. 

White Willow, Salix alba, rapid grower; June. 



ADAPTATION TO CLIMATIC ENVIRONMENT. 26 

Cottonwood, Popuhis monilifera; needs moist soil; June. 

Bur Oak, Quercus macrocarpa; wants rich soil; Autumn. 

Jack or Bear Oak, Q. Banistera, ior windbreak; Oct. 

Butternut, Juglans cinerea, desirable; Oct. 

Black Walnut, J. nigra, southern half Minn., valuable; Oct. 

White Pine, Pinus Strobus, lumber tree, handsome; Nov. 

Scotch Pine, P. Sylvestris, coarse, very hardy; Autumn. 

Bull Pine, P. ponderosa, promising; Autumn. 

White Spruce, Picea alba, better than Norway; Autumn. 

ORNAMENTAL TREES RECOMMENDED. 

Soft Maple, Acer dasycarpum, protect, shorten the limbs; June. 

Sugar Maple, Saccharinum, succeeds when established; Oct. 

White Birch, Betula papyracea, always pretty; Autumn. 

Yellow Birch, B. bctea, golden bark; Autumn. 

Cut Leaved Weeping Birch, B. alba var. laciniaia, hardy in good soil; 
Autumn. 

Bitternut Hickory, Carya atnara; also Shell Bark and Pig-Nut; Autumn. 

Hackberry, Celtts occidentalis, rivals White Elm; Oct. 

Kentucky Coffee Tree, Gymtiocladus Canadenses, for southern Mmn.. 
September. 

Boleana Poplar, Van Gert's Golden, Wobski, Siberian pyramidalis; cut- 
tings. 

Wild Black Cherry, Prtaius seroiina, always pretty; Sept. 

Eu. Mt. Ash, Am. Mt. A.; Weeping Mt. A.; conspicuous; Oct. 

White, Bur, Red and Scarlet oaks from acorns; Autumn. 

Russian Golden Willow, Wis. Weeping, Laurel Leaved, Royal, Na- 
polean's; cuttings. 

Basswood, Tilia Am., June fl's., honey tree; Oct. 

Camperdown Weeping Elm, protect; Rock, White E.; June. 

White Pine, White Spruce, Col. Blue S., Red Cedar, Savm Juniper, 
Arbor Vitse (also Pyramidal and Golden varieties of) Balsam Fir, Norway 
and Douglas Spruces; these Evergreens are hardy, beautiful, healthy. 

FLOWERING SHRUBS RECOMMENDED. 

For the list of hardy shrubs, tested in our cUmate, the author specially is 
indebted to Prof S. B. Green, of the Experiment Station, St. Anthony Park; 
Jewell Nursery, Lake City; Prof. Robert M. Gray, manager of the Men- 
denhall's greenhouses, Minneapolis. 

We should take into our calculation the value of windbreaks for our 
floral as well as other plants. Where they are exposed on the treeless 
prairies, some of them will not do well; must have proper screens against 
hot, bright suns and drying winds; also suitable protection will be necessary 
in the winter. 

The season of flowering is mentioned so that the selection may be choice 



27 TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL, 

with a view to continuous bloom in successive order from early spring till 
fall, and for the extension of their attractiveness even into the winter, so 
grouped in artistic arrangement as to form, size and balance, that the subor- 
dinated colors of the barks and the extreme contrasts of the evergreens 
with the mantling snows, may present a perspective beautiful as thai of 
summer. Let us surround our homes with these "floral apostles." 

SPRING FLOWERING. 

June Berry, Amelanchicr Canadensis; white flowers; edible fruit; April, 
May. 

Missouri Currant, Ribes aureiem, bright yellow; April, May. 

Berberry, Berber7is tmlgaris, (purple leaved); yellow; June. 

Red Branched Dogwood, Cornus Sangtmiea, white; red bark; purple 
berries. 

Weigela, Diervilla rosea, rose, trumpet shaped; May, June. 

Bush Honeysuckle, Lonzcera iartarica, pink, red, white; April, May, 
June. 

Siberian Pea Tree, Caragana arborescejis, yellow; early spring. 

Buckthorn, Rhamniis catharticus, hedge plant, white; black berries; June. 

Privet, Ligustrtcm, from Poland, white; May, June. 

Nine Bark, Physocarpus opulifolia, var aurea, white clusters; June. 

Meadow Sweet, Spirea Van Houtiii, white clusters; June. 

Ash Leaved Spirea, .S". sorbifolia, white, July; .S". obovaia, white; May. 

Red Berried Elder, Safubiccus racemosa, white; Golden E.; May. 

Buffalo Berry, Shepherdia argentea; early flowering; silvery leaves; edi- 
ble fruit. 

Burning Bush, Euony'/nus airopurpereus, purple; crimson fruit; June. 

Syringa or Mock Orange, Philadel'phus coronarius, white, May; grandi- 
fiora, June. 

Lilac, Syringa Vulgaris, purple-white; also Persian and Josika. 

Smooth Leaved Sumac, Rhus glabra^ greenish-red; also Cut Leaved; 
June. 

High Bush Cranberry, Viburnum opulus, white; acid, red fruit; June, 

Snowball, V. stcri/fs, white; also Arrow Wood and Sheep Berry; June. 

SIMMER FLOWERING. 

Snow or Wolf Berry, SyinpJioricarpus, white; fr't remains in winter. 
Spirea Bluntaldi, rose; July and August. 
Rose Mallow, Hibiscus militaris, whitish, showy; late summer 
Hydrangea, H. paniculaia gradijloria, white; August, September. 
Trumpet Honeysuckle, /,' nicera sc»ipe?virc>is, red-yellow; May to Oct. 
St. John's Wort, Hypericum aurcum, yellow flowers in August, Sept. 
Witch Hazel, Namamelis Virginiana, yellow blossoms; autumn and 
winter. 

Japanese Rose, Rosa rugosa, pink, white, flowers all summer. 



ADAPTATION TO CLIMATIC ENVIRONMENT. 28 

The many hybrid roses cannot be enumerated here. For the lawn select 
only such as have been acclimated out of doors. 

ORNAMENTAL VINES RECOMMENDED. 

American Ivy, Ampelopsis quinquefolia, crimson in fall; July fl's. 
Bitter-Sweet, Celastrns scandens, scarlet seeds in winter; July. 
Virgin's Bower, Clematis Virginiana, white; C. Viticella, purple; all 
summer. 

Moonseed, Minisperum Canadense, white; needs shade; July. 
Frost Grape, Vzfis coftdtfolia, dark purple; hides deformities. 

LAWN ORNAMENTATION. 

Perspective arrangement for health and beauty is the all-important con- 
sideration. Close planting on the lawn is neither healthful, desirable nor 
practical. If so treated, the trees largely become bare of attractive foliage. 
They are far prettier if standing out single, their branches allowed to come 
out close to the ground, as if trying to hug it by their graceful curves. ^ 
*» Fast growing evergreens, such as the Scotch, Austrian and White pines 
should not be less than thirty feet apart. The slower growing sorts, 
such as the Siberian Golden, and Pyramidal Arbor Vitas, and dwarf Mugho 
pine may be planted nearer. A few choice ones on the lawn, selected from 
the preceding list, suits the artistic eye; and they should have no set style 
about them, neither in position nor form. "Unity in diversity" is nature's 
method for perfectibility. 

Fast growing evergreens lose their beauty generally as they age. Better 
put these in the back ground, hiding the deformities of the out-buildings. 

One or two dwarf willows of high colored barks, a soft maple, a hard 
maple, a cutleaved birch, a mountain ash — such as these can be sprinkled 
about the home lot in front, leaving ample spaces for flowering plants in 
cosy niches along the winding paths and edges of the grassy plats; the 
whole so naturally and tastefully arranged, that every view from the 
windows and from all angles shall present a new and engaging scene. 

EVERGREEN SCREENS. 

To separate the garden from the lawn, lane or other spot, and to improve 
the beauty of the premises, build up some screens or hedges with hemlock 
spruce, arbor vitse or red cedar. Any of these species is pretty and endur- 
ble. 

PLANT FOR LONGEVITY. 

In planting a windbreak or forest group, why not calculate for longevity? 
Fast growing trees, like some human beings, mature early and die early. 
The poplars, locusts and soft maples start off as if they were the "fittest," 
making rapid progress for about ten years, but soon lessen in rate, reach 
ing their maximum before some other trees have fairly got a foothold. You 
may plant a field of box elders and by its side a field of ashes; the first will 



29 



TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL 



shoot ahead and spread themselves with promise of leadership. Mean- 
while the ashes seem to falter; but, understand, they are sending down tap 
roots, and at the end of five or six years, may be towering above their 
neighbors, and will survive when the box elders are gone. The oak, the 
beech, the pine, the spruce, the sugar maple, and nearly all shade-enduring 
trees grow slow at first, but when the light-needing species have about 
reached their maximum, the former have just fairly begun the race for 
longevity, some of them demarking the centuries. In a few years our 
pioneer trees, so useful in their time, will largely have to give place to the 
slowergrowing and hardier sort. 

SUCCESSION OF TREE GROWTH. 

Almost universally the notion prevails, that "when the pines are gone 
they are gone forever, and that the soil where they grew is worn-out, un- 
fit to reproduce good timber qualities." This notion, so damaging to forest 
preservation, also discourages improved forestry on the prairie where tem- 
porary trees are often planted only for the present convenience of the pro- 
prietor. 

Alternations of trees are as various as the species within the territory 
where they occur. In the southern states especially, and sometimes in the 
northern, oaks take the place of the departing pines, and so the reverse. 
But the succeeding oaks stand no show compared with the poplars, aspens 
especially, and the canoe birches. The latter grow on moist or dry places; 
fires cannot eradicate them. Both waft on wings of down their millions 
upon millions of almost infinitesimal seeds that alight everywhere, v Burnt 
districts or any cleared lands are their paradise. Hence, all along the 
northern tier of lumber states, and over the Canadas, even to the Arctic 
Circle, these trees take possession of the denuded lands. Fortunately 
they are short lived and often pave the way for the return of the pines. 
Oaks get a foothold, too, interspersed with other hard woods, for their seeds 
and roots, long buried under the leaves and soil get sunlight enough to 
sprout. These facts demonstrate that with proper management we can 
have the most valuable trees, only plant and preserve them, and keep out 
fires and browsing stock. 

So far from the forests having a worn out soil, it is the best in the world. 
The decay of the fallen leaves and limbs, the carbon dioxide thus evolved 
for plant growth again, the nitrifying agencies of the net-work of roots, form 
the rich humus of the future farms. Neutralize this fertilizing art of nature 
by injudicious cutting, or burning the leaf mold, and not only is the soil thus 
impoverished and drouths provoked, but sorrowful alternations of trees in- 
evitably ensue. H. B. Ayres, a forest expert in our state and close observ- 
er, avers that burnt land "could not be put m condition as promising (as an 
adjoining unburnt tract) for less than $20 an acre." On an unburnt acre 
cut th^ same winter — three years before his investigations — he counted "1267 



ADAPTATION TO CLIMATIC ENVIRONMENT. 30 

little white pine seedlings, two years old," growing under the shade of im- 
mature pine saplinf s, poplar, maple and hazel brush. Every woodsman 
has noticed like results wherever fires in the pine regions are excluded. 
The English oaks grow today in places where William the Conqueror found 
them when he invaded Britain. For centuries the pines of Maine have re- 
peated themselves on their native heath. Given the conditions, and the 
"fittest" remain while human generations come and go. 

RATE OF WOOD MAKING. 

Trees begin to make wood faster when they have fully developed their 
crowns. But in the hurry for profit men seldom wait for that. "The 
growth in volume or mass accretion," says Prof. Fernow, "is quite small in 
young trees, so that when wood is cut young, the smallest amount of crop 
per year is harvested, while, if it is allowed to grow, an increase more than 
proportionate to the number of years may be obtained." 

PLANTS OR SEEDS — WHICH? 

Germinating seeds on the open prairie is attended with more or less un- 
certainty, depending largely on the season; if ihey do germinate they are 
subject to our terrible drying and freezing winds, rendering their lives pre- 
carious the first and second years. Besides, too many seeds come up in the 
hill where a single tree only is wanted, and the surplus has to be plucked 
out at extra expense. All things considered it is better to put the seeds in 
a properly protected seed bed, and then the "fittest" can be selected. 

SEEDLINGS ARE GENERALLY THE BEST. 

In a healthy state the roots of a seedling are as naturally adjusted to its 
stem as the limbs. A cutting has to spread its roots out more horizontal 
than a seedling, and does*not, as a rule, make so reliable a tree. Nor is a 
sprout equal in value to a seedling. It may grow rapidly at first, but soon 
slackens its rate and seldom, if ever, attains the height and diameter of a 
seedHng. 

RAISING TREES FROM BROADCAST SOWING. 

Note how nature plants her trees and copy as near as possible. Some 
farmers on our western prairies have raised the finest forest groups by sow- 
ing mixed fall seeds broadcast on the deeply plowed and finely pulverized 
soil, harrowing them in. Of course they sprout up thick in the sprino-, 
thus largely mastering the weeds, but where the weeds get ahead, they 
are pulled up by hand, and all grasses kept out by the hoe. This is a 
slower method of raising trees, but cheaper in the long run; and such trees 
will thin themselves out, and become forest like, and the verv best of wind- 
breaks. 



31 



TRRE PLANTER'S MANUAL 



TREES PER ACRE. 



The following number of trees per acre are required when planting at 
the distance here indicated: 

6 by 6 inches 154.240 2 by 4 feet 5,445 

12 by 12 inches 43.560 3 by 2 feet 7,260 

18 by 18 inches 19,360 3 by 3 feet 4 840 

2 by I foot 21,780 3 by 4 feet 3.630 

2 by 2 feet 10,890 4 by 4 feet 2.722 

MUTUAL SUPPORT. 

Begin, then, densely for safety and mutual protection; thin out as neces- 
sary. Mix the trees. Have, say, five or six hundred per acre, light-need- 
ing substantial oaks, pines (white leading) spruces, elms, hickories, ashes, 
black walnuts, sugar maples, black cherries, placed at proper distances. In 
time these will hold sole possession. Succor these by pioneer trees, such as 
the box elders, the white willows, the soft maples, the butternuts, the bass 
woods, the poplars. 

CULL THE BEST OR POOREST — WHICH? 

When your trees have grown large enough for fuel, building purposes, or 
fencing, will you follow the example of lumbering men, cull the best and 
leave the poorest? Will you thus make a truce of peace with the weeds and 
grasses, the winds and fires? It is the popular way, but it ruins your wind- 
break or forest. If you plant only for yourself, indifferent to the needs of 
your successors, with no love or pride for the beauty of the state, it is to be 
expected that when you are about to rot down, as you providentially de- 
serve, your trees will perish with you, and the cyclone will howl a fitting re- 
quiem over your treeless, nameless grave. 

HOW TO PERPETUATE THE FOREST OR WINDBREAK. 

It costs too much and the woodland Ipt is too precious as a protection and 
source of profit for fuel or lumber, to let it run out lor want of proper care 
and attention. In the older settled portions of southern and central Minne- 
sota, tree plantations have in places grown to such size as to necessitate 
special treatment for their perpetuity and use in constant improvements. 

The first principles of preservation must be considered. As already hint- 
ed, the object to be sought is the self-sustaining capacity of the forested soil. 
Remember it is the crown cover, the woody underbrush and the heavy layer 
of well-decomposed humus, that intercept the efifects of hot drying winds. 
and the compacting force of beating rains, which in the woods reach the 
ground gradually with only gentle friction, thus keeping the soil loose and 
granular, enabling the water to penetrate rapidly and make its capillary 
movements among the roots with perfect facility. 



ADAPTATION TO CLIMATIC ENVIRONMENT. 32 



EXCLUDING GRASSES AND WEEDS. 

To secure the object just mentioned, the crown cover of a windbreak or 
grove should be uninterrupted in the main. This is accompUshed by close 
planting of light-needing with shade-enduring trees. If permanent open- 
ings are allowed, the grasses and weeds are sure to get in, binding the roots 
to the injury of the plantation. Grass especially, transpires far more water 
than woody plants, thus monopolizing and deteriorating the soil. Whoever 
aims to preserve the life and use of his tree plantation will watch with pru- 
dent care that the shading is so managed as to exclude the root-bind of 
grasses and other injurious intruders. 

UTILIZING A CROP OF TREES. 

What is wanted is to utilize such trees as are old enough with a view 
to their reproduction. In agriculture the yearly crop is fully removed and a 
new one planted for succession or rotation; but this cannot be done with 
wood crops, for it takes a series of years, sometimes a century or more, to 
develop them to maturity. True, the proprietor can clear a forest for utility, 
and plant there the same or other species of seedlings, but this interrupts 
timely seasons of profit where forestal areas are very limited, as on the 
prairie, and lands are considered more profitable for agriculture when im- 
mediate profit is the object. 

THINNING OUT. 

Inspecting the results of the common methods of thinning, one would 
think the very devil had been at work to see how rapidly he could destroy 
them. Usually no thought is bestowed upon the laws of sylvan society. 
By virtue of close companionship where cuttings have not obtained nor fires 
raged, the trees of Minnesota are certainly acclimated to the conditions of 
trees scattered in the open of southern Michigan. 

To cut and slash as farmers and lumbermen do, thoughtless of conse- 
quences upon the remaining trees, to say nothing of climatic sequences 
for the worse, is as cruel to the trees as to turn a group of tender children 
out into the winter cold without providing proper clothing for temperamental 
change. Such farmers may have good intentions, for they want some large 
trees for agricultural shelter and future fuel, if not for lumber, but this 
worthy purpose does not prevent nature's just chastisements. The limbs of 
the larger trees break down, the trunks bend and shiver, rot gets into the 
heart, speedy death follows, and the young trees, if they escaDe the fire, 
"live at a poor dying rate." 

GRADUAL THINNING. 

It needs but a moment's reflection to know that the thinning must be 
gradual or failure ensues. Prof. Fernow thinks that the first necessity for 
thinning may not arise with the light-needing species earlier than the 
twelfth or fifteenth year. "It is better to thin carefully," he says, "and re- 



33 TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL. 

peat the operation oftener than to open up so severely at once as to jeopar- 
dize the soil conditions. Especially in younger growths and on poorer soil, 
it is best never to open a continuous crown cover so that it could not close 
up again in five or six years." When trees attain 50 or 60 feet, the thin- 
ning may be more severe, practiced only every six to ten years. Soon as 
the crowns touch and interlace, thin again. "In mixed growth it must not 
be overlooked that light- needing species must be especially protected 
against shadier neighbors. Shade-enduring trees, such as the spruce?, 
beeches, sugar maples and hickories bear over topping for a time and will 
then grow vigorously when more light is given, while light-needing species, 
like the pines, larch, oaks and ash, when once suppressed, may never be 
able to recover." 

SAVE THE SUPERIORS. 

As we have seen, the object of the nurse trees is to aid in the develop- 
ment of the "'fittest." This attained, their use may have ended. If they 
over-top the superior, "out of my sunshine" is the order; or at least top 
down and give room for the better. As "side shows," aiding in further de- 
velopment of the superior shaft-trunks, they may be retained, but when 
they have cleared these trunks of needless limbs by shading, the time for 
their removal has come; but it should be done with great care lest thereby 
the soil be exposed too much to the sun, drying it up and retarding wood 
accretion. Fast as the inferiors crowd upon the superiors injuriously, then 
remove the former judiciously so as to preserve the continuity of the needed 
shade. 

IMPROVEMENT CUTTINGS. 

As here shown, thinning should be for improvement, and cutting for pro- 
fit should be to accomplish the same ends. In this respect we cannot yet 
apply the European methods, however meritorious they may be, where for- 
estry is made a special I science. We must accept our situation as it is and 
make of it all it is worth, moving forward by evolutional steps*. We do not 
ask for an abandonment of cutting for profit, but do ask for forest improve- 
ment in the operation. To cut mature trees, or what can be profitably 
utilized without an eye to the healthful perpetuity of the plantation, leaving 
the balance of the trees to fall into ruins and be at last cleared by the in- 
evitable fire, followed by deteriorated soils, is, to s.iy the best, a vandalism 
too vandalish to tolerate in our age of economic civilization. 

CUTTING TO GROW AGAIN. 

If in thinning out or other purposes, you wish to have your trees sprout 
again, preserving the species and forest continuity, cut on a level with the 
ground just before the sap starts, such trees, not over twelve or fifteen years 
old, as the ashes, bur and jack oaks, box elders, basswoods, willows, cot 
tonwoods and other poplars. Old trees, remember, lose their power of re- 



ADAPTATION TO CLIMATIC ENVIRONMENT. 34 

production both in seeds and sprouts. Do not wound or tear off the bark, 
for the sprouts come from its inner layers. Use an adze and leave the 
stumps convex, so that the rain will not gather in the heart, producing rot. 
Cut away such sprouts as are not wanted. 

TO PREVENT SPROUTS. 

If the object is to destroy shoots or sprouts, cut in summer, July or 
August, when the leaves are in full maturity. 

CUTTING FOR DURABLE TIMBER. 

Railroad ties, fence posts and the like should be cut in the dormant sea- 
son, the winter, as you would mature trees for lumber. Hoop-poles should 
never be cut when the bark will peel. 

POLLARDS. 

Where k is the design to obtain more and lower sightly shade, the tops of 
quite large poplars, willows and sometimes soft maples are cut off entirely. 
Such tiees are called "pollards." Men, ignorant of the laws of tree growth, 
often cut below the division of the first branches; then the young shoots can 
only form around the margin of the headless trunk, and the middle part of 
such section usually becomes rotten. If the am.putation is higher up, cut- 
ting off the lower and entire first branches, the tree will tend to make a 
graceful head, and the trunk will remain sound. 

PLANTING EVERGREENS IN OAK OPENINGS. 

A correspondent asks as to planting evergreens in sandy loam among 
the bur or jack oak openings. Experience, of course, settles the question. 
It is certain where trees (applicable alike to apple trees and other fruit 
plants) are taken from the rich soil of the nursery, and transplanted into a 
sandy or any depleted soil, or soil that is non-adaptable, they have a severe 
struggle at first to get a foothold; scarcely grow at all for a year or more, 
and are quite liable to fritter out and die. 

GREEDY FELLOWS. 

The oaks are greedy fellows; what nutrition they can make or obtain, 
they are sure to monopolize; and there may be little or none left for new oc- 
cupants. Their shade is favorable for evergreens, provided it is not too 
dense. Sunlight, they too, must have, which if sifted by a thin curtain 
of oak leaves, will help them to surmount the difficulties of their environ- 
ment. 

CART IN FERTILIZERS. 

First subdue that wild soil by cultivation, or make very large holes for 
the trees, so as to loosen up the soil for proper air circulation. To start the 
trees healthfully, better cart in some rich dirt for the roots; or mix some rot- 
ten manure or decayed leaves with the crude soil. Water the roots in, an 
abundance of it at first. Mulch at far distances from the trunks. You will 



35 



TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL. 



no doubt then succeed. The Scotch and white pines, and native white 
spruce — these will be adaptable selections. 

PLANTING TREES IN CLAY BEDS. 

Another correspondent asks advice relative to the safety of planting large 
trees, in cold, clay beds. Doubtful if any of our desirable trees can survive 
in a loam composed of nothing but clay. Better dig out monstrous holes, 
cast in some rich, cultivated soil, properly compacted among the roots. 
Whatever portion of the clay is used, should be mixed with sand to render 
it friable, so that it vnll rest lightly over the base of the tree. There is dan- 
ger lest water will form a pool there, being walled round by the impervious 
clay, which may kill the tree. Hence drainage should be provided. 

PLANTING ON SANDY PLACES. 

The rules herein laid down for preparation and culture of soil are not ap.- 
plicable to sand-drifting localities. The least stirring of such ground may 
be the wiser course to pursue. No use to stick in cuttings unless the season 
is unusually wet; nor is it practical to try forest seeds in so desert conditions. 
Rooted plants only will do. As it is unsafe to cultivate there, better plant 
the small size trees promiscuously and densely for mutual protection and 
early shade. The pines are less evaporative than the deciduous trees, 
hence will better stand the test. Put the roots down deeper than ordinary 
to be as much in touch with moisture as possible. Try the Scotch, bull, 
jack, red and white pines, arbor vit^, red cedar, our native white spruce, 
the white and green ash. For root shade try the wild prairie rose, the sand 
cherry, the choke cherry, the buffalo berry, the dwarf gray willow (Salix 
tristis), the native dewberry, and some of our sand and soil-binding grass- 
es, having strong creeping rootstocks, such as long leafed sand grass 
{Ca/amovz7/a /on£t/fl/za), and Redfield's grass {Redfieldia flexuosa), both 
common in the more sandy regions of our West. 

SAND DUNES. 

Where the sand is liable to drift before strong winds, it may be necessary 
to employ the methods used upon the sand'^dunes of Holland, Denmark 
and France, upon Cape Cod, Mass., portions of Florida, and other parts of 
our country where deforestation has provoked sand drifting to the ruin of 
all vegetation in their wake. 

HOW TO HOLD THE SANDS. 

Palings of boards are driven down endwise about an inch apart, so that 
the sand, gliding along the surface, piles up in front of the paling, and, 
passing through, is deposited behind. As the dune rises higher the boards 
are pulled up a few feet more, and thus the process goes on till a sloping 
hill is formed, over whose barriers the wind has to climb, hollowing out the 
sand somewhat, biit is practically broken as it strikes down on the opposite 



ADAPTATION TO CLIMATIC ENVIRONMENT. 36 

side. The better to produce stable steepness, woven brush is also piled on 
the top from time to time. Then grasses and other plants are made to grow 
on the front slope. Then trees are planted there in conquest over sand 
and wind, and the once "desert place" becomes a beauty and a profit. 

WILLOWS FOR RIVER EMBANKMENTS. 

Owing to the spring floods, floating ice and swash and plunge of logs and 
boats, great inroads are made upon the banks of our large rivers, some- 
times undermining buildings, creating sand bars, wasting the soil and doing 
other damage in the angry rush. Nothing can so well prevent such disas- 
ters as to plant willows wherever the danger lies. Let them dip their 
roots close down to the water edges. White or gray or black, almost any 
kind of willows, will answer the purpose. Though the spring ice may break 
down their tops and pile debris upon them, yet their tenacious and en- 
tangled roots will send up new shoots thicker than ever before, and at length 
will become so solid a mass as to arrest sediment in the little eddies among 
their meshes, purifying the water, building up the banks and adding to the 
healthful rapidity of the river. 

REEDS FOR BINDING THE BANKS. 

The common reeds (Phragmites) are regarded among the most valuable 
grasses for binding the banks of rivers. The rootstocks are so strong 
scarcely anything can move them. The young shoots are liked by cattle; 
the mature stems make the best thatch. 

PLANTING IN WET AND BOGGY PLACES. 

Where it is not desirable to ditch a wet place, such as a bog or swamp, or 
low slough of the prairie, dig no holes, for that would surely kill the trees* 
but spread the rgots (tapless) on the surface and build on them suitable 
mounds of sods, mosses, sticks and stones to hold them secure. Select 
trees, spruces, pines, yellow and white birches, willows, larches, ashes, that 
are from 5 to 6 feet high. Set them out irregularly and forest-like. The 
success will be wonderful. In this way the fire-swept marshes of the state 
can be speedily regenerated. The rapid wood accretion and very copious 
evaporation will drain out the surplus water. Would not this method of 
drainage be the most economic one for the state to invest in? Could a more 
practical use be made of our now desolate marshes? 

PLANTING TREES ALONG HIGHWAYS. 

Wherever trees are planted, the object sought should determine the spe- 
cies, distances apart, sizes, etc. Where they stand thick and hedge-like 
along the highways, they are apt to trap snow and pile it in high drifts, and 
in the spring hinder the roads from drying so rapidly, also during summer 
rains, as in the open country. Nor is it desirable to have so many there 
as to hide plain views of the country. It is therefore recommended, that 
trees for the roadsides be placed 50 to 60 feet apart, and gradually pruned 



37 



TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL. 



upward so that they shall tower high, thus staying hard winds, and afford 
ample ventilation and perspective. 

The soil will need to be managed as described, plowed deep and kept 
cultivated until the trees are strong and large enough to take care of 
themselves. The ashes, elms, basswoods, hard maples, of quite large sizes 
when planted, are good sorts for the highways of Minnesota. 

PLANTING ON STEEP PLACES. 

Along some ol our river and lake shores are areas of rocky and clayey 
bluffs, many of them so barren as to be worthless even for pasturage. Were 
they clothed with forests, it would greatly conserve evaporation and be- 
come otherwise profitable and picturesque. Than such, harder places have 
been regenerated in the old world. Ploughing them would be no advantage, 
but add greatly to the waste under pelting rains and the slush of snows in the 
spring. As recommended by Prof. F. B. Hough, Elements of Forestry, 
page 57; dig "horizontal terraces or notches at convenient intervals, secur- 
ing their outer edges with brush held in place with pegs. In a year or two 
these notches will have probably become filled up by the crumbling away 
of the rock above, and in the soil thus formed, trees may be planted with a 
prospect of success." 

Begin with our native white and green ash, and buroaks (planting the 
acornsj and shade the candidates with our hardiest shrubs, mentioned in 
this treatise, not forgetting how efficient in this respect is our native prairie 
rose, whose tap-root will find moisture if it has to go down five or six feet to 
reach it. Better mix some well rotted manure with the sterile soil and then 
mulch the entire terraces not less than six inches. 

LAYERING. 

Lay down a branch or stool shoot, cut a slight slit where you would have 
it sprout, and bury it m the soil, leaving the top out, and it will de- 
velop roots, when it can be severed from the mother tree for a plant of in- 
dependent life. Choice sorts are thus easily propagated. 

ROOT SUCKERS. 

If you wish to multiply special trees, hurt or cut some of the roots, loosen 
the soil around them and manure well. The suckering takes more readily 
with old trees, and in the spring, when they can be soon removed to the 
new plantation. But such trees seldom become beautiful or equal in all re- 
spects to the original; besides such have a strong tendency to root sucker. 

HEDGES. 

Hedges are living fences and screens. Much inquiry obtains as to what 
is hardy and most serviceable. Col. John H. Stevens recommends the 
buffalo berry, Shepherdia argentea, being thorny, tough and pretty; effectu- 
ally resists cattle. The honey locust is used in Iowa and 'some other 
southerly states, but it is very liable to be destroyed by borers; not so in the 



ADAPTATION TO CLIMATIC ENVIRONMENT. 38 

buffalo berry. Both these plants would have to be annually cut back in 
broad-base pyramidal form, and when the dwarf habit is fully estab- 
lished, the hedge may need but little care. The scarlet thorn, a native 
of the cold regions, will thrive in our soils. The prickly ash, Zonihoxylum 
Aniericanum, is certainly valuable for the purpose, with the exception that 
it propagates readily from the roots. It is very common, and the branches 
are armed with strong conical, brown prickles with a broad base. Where 
the exclusion ot stock is not the object, no hardier or prettier hedge can be 
planted than the hemlock, Abies Canadensis, or the American arbor vitas, 
(white cedar). Prof. W. W. Pendergast, Sup't. of Public Instruction, well 
posted in plant experimentation, recommends the buckthorn, Rhamtius 
Cathariicus, that has proved very hardy in Minnesota. His treatment of 
the seeds and seedlings will apply to the buffalo berry and other 
hedge plants, including the barberry which^is highly recommended. 

"Soon as the frost is out of the ground in the spring to the depth of three 
or four inches, mix a pound of buckthorn seed with about two quarts of 
finely pulverized sandy soil, and having rubbed it well with the hands in a 
pail of water to separate the three seeds which grow in each pocket, place 
the mixture in a box six inches square and six inches deep, in the bottom 
of which several holes have been previously bored for drainage, and cover 
the whole with half an inch of fine soil. Sink the box in loose soil in some 
sunny spot, and occasionally sprinkle with soft water slightly warmed. Be 
careful not to water too frequently or too abundantly, as in such case the 
seed M^ill rot. If the season be rainy, it will not need watering at all. The 
ground should be kept somewhat moist, but not wet. About the first of 
May begin to examine the seed to see if it has sprouted. When the little 
white roots begin to protrude from the seeds, make a garden bed about a 
rod square and sow the seeds half an inch deep, making fourteen rows, and 
sowing about four hundred seeds to a row. The plants should grow two 
years in the bed before being set in the hedge-row. Cut back to half their 
length and set in parallel rows one foot apart, and plant one foot apart in 
the row, breaking joints so that each shall be opposite the midway point be- 
tween the nearest two in the other row. Prune severely for the first few 
years, so as to make the hedge thicken up well at the bottom. A pound of 
seed should make 180 rods of hedge." 

PRUNING TREES. 

As a rule, June and the first part of July are considered the safest months for 
pruning; for then the trees are in full tide of life, and the leaves have about 
reached their mature size. Very many of our farmers prune in March or 
April, because they have a little leisure then. This is decidedly the most 
dangerous season of the year. If the pruning is done to the trees that have 
been standing for years and are in full vigor, the abundance of sap in the 
little tubes that feed the limbs, may stagnate and ferment at the cuts, caus- 
ing rot, especially if the limbs are large. The flow of sap is not so copious 
n trees to be transplanted, especially with such as have lain dormant all 



39 



TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL, 



winter, heeled-in; for they have not yet got sufficient hold in the soil to pro- 
duce vigorous transpiration; hence, such may be pruned to balance their 
roots at any time of replanting. It will do to prune small limbs of standing 
trees in June, but not large ones, for their wounds are too broad and old ior 
nature to heal over that season, and may never be able to do it, besides they 
are very liable then to rot at the cuts. 

MENACING TO TREE LIFE. 

If necessary to cut off large limbs, do it in September, or October, or some 
frostless days in midwinter, when there is greater freedom from flowing 
sap, and when the cooler weather may allow the wounds to season. Large 
limbs correspond with large roots. If you cut off the former you endanger 
he life of the latter, and invite a rotting process to roots which in turn convey 
he decay to the leaves and thence to the trunk. Like a gangrene in a flesh 
wound, poisoning the blood, it infuses disease into the sap. A badly 
pruned tree, especially if mature, soon becomes hollow and succumbs to a 
rotting death. 

DANGER OF PRUNING EVERGREENS. 

Some men think they must prune all their trees, because it is the style* 
This is done on the principle that it improves a horse to cut off his tail 
They assume that nature is "totally depraved" and never can right herself 
without their intervention. 

If you want them for timber, plant them dense, and they will spire up tall 
and limber-like, 'and will prune themselves better than do nine-tenths of the 
intermeddlers. But for windbreaks and ornamentation, don't touch a limb 
after the tree has stood a year or more, unless a little cut here and there of 
the fine saw or sharp knife is necessary to the perfection of the tree. If you 
plant young evergreens, nursery grown, that have been two or three times 
transplanted, thus developing an extra amount of root hairs, they will bal- 
ance themselves with limbs trailing low down to the ground and towering up 
in graceful beauty. A few rules for all kinds of trees: 

Where two limbs cross or rub against each other, cut one off. 

Remove the sprouts from the trunk and main branches, unless new 
branches will improve the tree. 

Cut off all dead branches at any time. 

Thin the head and let in sunlight, if it be too dense and shady. 

Always cut close to the bark. 

Pruning a tree weakens it; hence be guarded. The amount of wood 
growth "depends upon the extent to which the nutritious elements of the 
soil and air are elaborated and prepared by the leaves, and in reducing 
their amount by trimming, to that extent do we lessen the productive forces 
of the tree, and for the time bemg reduce the am.ount of the annual gain 
for the next and succeeding years, until a proper balance is secured by a 
new supply of leaves." 



ADAPTATION TO CLIMATIC ENVIRONMENT. 40 

*.^ 

EXUDITION OF EVERGREENS. 

Says Carriere, a French forestei: "The evergreens differ in their ability 
to bear pruning according to the abundance of resin that they contain, and 
in some of the pines wounds will bleed a long time after the injury." To 
the question, "Should we prune the resinous conifers?" Carriere answers: 
"No, if kept for ornament, whether alone or in masses, because in their 
native condition they are most agreeable to the eye; but yes, if the value of 
timber is the object." 

Says Prof. Hough, another good authority: "The most important objec- 
tion raised against the trimming of evergreens is their tendency to the exu 
dilion of resinous matters, which in the Scotch fir and larch will sometimes 
destroy the tree altogether. The exuditions may go on slowly, and seem to 
be stopped from time to time, according to the season of the year and the 
activity of the vital process, but it reappears with warm weather, and will 
resist any application that may be made to prevent it." 

DISBUDDING. 

There is little or no danger to our evergreens, or any other tree, if we sim- 
ply rub off with the hand, wlien the tree is young, what buds we do not 
want, and thus prevent undesirable limb-forming. This is the true artistic 
way of pruning. By so doing the practical forester will have symmetrical 
trunks and balanced foliage to order. If this method were employed in the 
timber plantation, the trees — other conditions equal — would be free from 
knots and conchs. How important that we attend to these things in season ! 
When we attempt to aid nature, it is wise to know what we are about and 
how to do the proper thing. 

TREE SURGERY. 

If live, large limbs must come off, do the work intelligently with the care 
that the skilful dentist uses in improving the teeth. You would not employ 
an ignoramus to doctor even your cow; why should you put such a fellow 
into your beautiful grove to prune your trees.f" Ten chances to one he will 
irreparably impair the value and life,' too, of every tree he touches. In our 
West where shade is so much needed, precious little pruning should be 
done, as a rule, and then only to aid nature for better shade and better light. 
Only necessity should govern the action of pruning. 

BARK WOUNDS. 

It is well known that if two-thirds of the human skin is burned or scalded 
the person dies. It is so with a tree. The bark is the skin. On its con- 
tinuity and heaithfulness depends the life of the tree. Its vascular system 
called the lacticiferous tissue, exists in the form of a complete network of 
vessels, through which the sap circulates in all directions. If the inner 
coatings just under the epidermis, called the celliilar zntegtimeni and liber, 
are removed, exposing the glutinous matter, or cambium, deposited by the 
sap for woody structure, the circulation is interrupted proportional to the 



41 



TRRE PLANTER'S MANUAL. 



size of the wound; if half or more of the bark is ripped off, half the sap-life 
is stopped, and unless early and properly doctored the tree will be very 
likely to die. Sometimes the rabbits will gnaw it off cliear round, and then 
not a particle of sap can pass to or from the leaves or roots. 

TREATING A FRESH WOUND. 

If the wound is a teesh one, and the cambium has not yet dried out, there 
is a chance to save the tree, despite the rabbit's teeth. Sometimes bury- 
ing the entire trunk with moist soil may save the tree, for then the cellular 
tissues, thus kept damp and protected from the drying air, will begin to 
heal, knitting their fibers together for new bark. Plastering the wound with 
grafting wax, or cow manure, answers the better purpose. 

GRAFTING OVER DEAD WOUNDS. 

If the cambium is literally dead, and life yet remains in the upper bark, 
procure some one year limbs or suckers of the same species; cut the ends as 
you would for grafting or budding, and insert both the top and lower ends 
under the ungnawed, healthy barks; band such attachments with waxed 
cloth; have all the barkless space thus completely covered; and the tree 
may recover its former vigor, by virtue of the life-connecting links. 

TRUNK CAVITIES. 

On our lawns and street sides are many trees injured by neglect or bad 
pruning, too valuable to lose, which, if timely cared for, can be made about 
as "good as new." As before shown, dead limbs left on too long, or large 
live limbs bunglingly amputated, invite the soaking-in of rain and the 
lodgement of insects, causing premature decay. We cannot too strongly 
emphasize the remedies prescribed at the close of the article on "Forestry 
in our Schools." As therein stated, the cutting away of all the loose, in- 
jured bark must be deftly done. In preparing conditions for nature to heal 
a flesh breach, the skilled surgeon slightly irritates the edges so as to pro- 
duce an exiidition of healing element; so with a tree, the cut must penetrate 
into the live, healthy bark, smooth in regular outline, especially on the lower 
side of the cavity. The seasoned piece of oak driven into the hole must be 
made to plug up every chink, and be smooth and on a level with the inner, 
live bark. The metal piece, nailed on to protect the oak piece from rotting 
must be so fixed that the healing lips of the bark can readily close over it. 
The coal tar then put on covers the whole, excluding all further danger 
from moisture. 

VIRTUE OF COAL TAR. 

"Coal tar has remarkably preservative properties, and may be used with 
equal advantage on living and dead wood. A single application produces 
a sort of instantaneous cauterization, and preserves from decay, wounds 
caused either by pruning or accident." 



ADAPTATION TO CLIMATIC ENVIRONMENT. 42 



TREE BLISTER. 

When trees are found to "blister," or liable to, when exposed to the di- 
rect rays of the sun, shade them with boards or screens of some sort. By 
planting closely, little or no injury occurs from the blistering, if, indeed, it 
occurs at all, because a dense shade shelters ihe trunks of the trees. Horti- 
culturists take advantage of shade for their apple trees by planting them on 
an angle dipping to the southwest, so that the trunks may be under shadow 
from the direct action of the sun. 

HOW TO SAVE PERISHING TREES. 

It is a noticeable fact that leaves begin to fall sometime in the growing 
season, or when it should be the growing, as in the latter part of July or in 
August. The vital circulation in a severe drouth, being then suspended or 
checked, the leaves die and drop off as naturally as fruit drops off when fully 
ripe. It would seem that whatever arrests the circulation or transpiration, 
whether heat or cold, produces the same result. Thermal conditions, how- 
ever, may be considered as secondary causes. Reduce the foliage, dig 
around the tree out from the trunk, harmless to the roots, and let in air and 
water; keep the tree covered with wet rags or wet straw for a week or more. 

CREVICES IN TREES. 

Some trees have crevices in their trunks, produced by wind, frost or other 
agencies, probably bleeding to death. Cutout the dead matter down to the 
live wood, and apply coal tar, or, with a rag, bind on — not too tight — cow 
manure. 

ROTTEN SINUSES. 

Where a dead branch is left on a iree, more especially if lar^e, water 
soaks in and follows down the fibres, causing a rotten burrow, sometimes 
extending a long distance down the trunk, resulting in a hollow tree a? 
commonly occurs with old basswoods and some other large timber. The 
infirmities of age applies to trees as to mortals. When trees have reached 
such conditions, there is no remedy but to cut them down. An alarming 
per cent of our native, and soon, if not already, of our planted trees, is rot- 
ting to the heart because of dead limbs left on, and other agencies, which it 
is in our power to forestall, if we will only be vigilant in our care for them. 

DRY ROT. 

Where trees are in very warm, close and moist places, they are apt to be 
infected with the dry rot. It is caused by the developm.entof a fundus, and 
can be detected by a brownish-white mold covering the wood, which sends 
its fibres into the tissues. "This vegetable first appears as delicate white 
filaments, interlacing with one another, attacking the wood fibre, and 
changing the ligneous mass into a loose cellular tissue, that readiiv falls in- 
to powder. The surface may remain sound when it is but rottenness with- 
in. It does not appear in the growing tree, and appears to be favored and 



43 TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL. 

developed by a fermentation of the juices." When there is a tendency to 
dry rot, it can be checked by using carbolic acid and other pyroligneous 
products. Perfect ventilation is an e xcellent means of prevention. 

BARK BOUND TREES. 

Where the bark is very hard it hinders expansion, and the tree languish- 
es. In the spring when the sap is starting, with the point of the sharp knife 
make an incision down the north side of the tree. The accretion of the 
trunk is rapid and the health of the tree improved as shown by the strip of 
new bark along the line of the incision. 

RAPID DYING OF CITY TREES. 

Owners of trees in the city lawns and along the streets, wonder why so 
large a percentage of them die every year. The cause is apparent. The 
smoke from the furnaces and chimneys send out noxious vapors that more 
or less injure vegetation near them. The short supply of water caused by 
drainage, the impervious pavements, concrete and hard-trodden streets and 
walks, prevent proper circulation for the roots. The leakage from the gas 
pipes is a deadening poison to every part of the trees. Remedy: Elimi- 
nate the "smoke nuisance;" give freer space around each tree; prune 
judiciously; soak the roots well during drouth; top-dress with fresh soil; 
close up the gas leakage. 

SWINE ON THE PLANTATION. 

A correspondent asks "if it is safe to pasture hogs in a tree plantation." 
Yes, if the trees have reached a certain stage of growth, say six inches in 
diameter, and it is done in the early part of growing season when their nose- 
rooling will loosen up the soil on the hunt for larvae, whose extermination 
rescues the trees from insect ravages. If you wish to retain the young 
underbrush — generally useful — better not let the hogs in, for they will be 
very likely to nose them down and eat up their tender roots. When the 
oaks drop their acorns, let them enjoy a feast. If it be discovered, how 
ever, that they then begin to dig again, better deny them, for the stirring of 
the ground so in the fall, quickens the flow of sap, dangerous to tree life at 
that late season. 

SHALL OTHER DOMESTIC ANIMALS BE ADMITTED? 

No! It is inconsistent with the growth of young timber. They eat down 
the young shoots, and hasten their decay in the very roots by their ever- 
recurring tramp in the woods, thatinevitably hardens the soil, and therefore 
prevents the percolation of water necessary to the life and health of the 
trees. The damage done by sheep and goats is greater than from horned 
cattle and horses. We have a law now for the prevention of forest fires, 
sufficient, when enforced in season, to meet such emergencies; but with fires 
excluded and domestic stock admitted, what prospect is there after all of re- 
building and perpetuating the forestry of Minnesota? 



ADAPTATION TO CLIMATIC ENVIRONMENT, 44 

DEPREDATION OF RODENTS. 

Of wild animals, the rodents are the greatest damage to our forest and 
fruit trees, especially mice, gophers and rabbits, gnawing the bark and eating 
off the roots. Any kind of paper tied around the base of the tree will keep 
the rascals at bay; so will wagon grease or blood brushed over the bark of 
the trunk; but the really effectual prevention is their extermination by 
poison or gun. 

CUTTING BACK SEEDLINGS. 

Where seedhngs for replanting are seriously wilted or top-heavy, you can 
save them by cutting them back almost to the crown of their roots. If the 
roots have life in them — better soak awhile in water — and are planted rightly, 
they will sprout up strong and have symmetrical and rapid growth. Such 
treatment of over-topped cottonwoods and other trees, even when every 
way healthy, secures the better growth. Planting their roots, is recom- 
mended by nurserymen. Box elders, grown in the shade of woodlands, 
have kinky limbs, not so well balanced as those of the nursery where they 
have more light. After they are transplanted into the open prairie, the 
upper parts struggle along and finally die, btit the next spring, up shoot 
strong beautiful blades and limbs. Had you planted only their roots, you 
would have saved time in their growing, and been surer of success. 

GRAFTING — HOW TO MANAGE. 

Grafting to improve the stock of trees is of late commanding the special 
attention of the friends of forestry. The following rules are applicable to 
fruit, as well as timber trees: 

"The kind of grafting most likely to be practiced on the farm is that 
known as cleft-grafting. The process is a simple one. Saw off the limb to 
be grafted where it is an inch or less in diameter; trim the edges of the 
'stub,' smooth and split it with a large knife or a cleaver made for the pur- 
pose. The cleft should not be more than four inches deep at the most. A 
wedge is nov/ inserted in the centre of the cleft and a cion is set on each 
side of the cleft. The cions are made of twigs of last year's growth. They 
should be cut before the trees show any signs of starting in the spring 
When the cion is prepared ready for setting, it should contain about three 
buds. The lower end is cut wedge-shaped by slicing off each side of the 
cion. On one side of this wedge shaped portion, midway between its top 
and bottom, should be left one of the buds. When the cion is set, this bud 
will be deep down in the side of the cleft in the stub, and will be covered 
with wax; but, being nearer the source of nourishment, it will be most apt of 
any buds to grow, and it will readily push through the wax. The cion is 
set into the cleft by exercismg great care that the inner surface of the bark 
on the cion exactly matches with the inner bark on the stub. A line be- 
tween the bark and wood may be observed. This line on the cion, in other 
words, should match the line on the stub. Wax the whole over carefuly 
and thoroughly. Do not leave any crack exposed. Grafting wax is made 



45 TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL. 

as follows: Melt together resin, beeswax and tallow in equal parts and 
spread on cotton cloth. Tear into strips and wrap around graft." 

WATER RESERVE FOR PLANTS IN WINTER. 

Experimentation proved that slight circulation obtains in plants when 
frozen; hence a proportional evaporation goes on. In a severely dry win- 
ter, trees and shrubs literally dry to death, the same as they do in a long 
continuous dry summer. It is found that, under such circumstances, when 
they are well watered in the late fall, and just before the freezing-up time, 
they will come out in the spring in quite healthy condition. If the roots 
and trunks are all right, but some of the limbs dried out and dead to all ap- 
pearances, you will frequently notice in the spring-quickening, that the life, 
juices will creep up, capillary, in the struggle to revive them, sometimes 
forming late and feeble leaves. Under these conditions it is better for the 
tree to cut off such limbs. But this killing-down process can be largely 
prevented by watering as described. 

RAISING CUTTINGS IN WATER. 

Almost any plants with comparatively hard wood can be made to root by 
being placed in bottles of water. The oleander is a familiar illustration. 
The ivy also can be raised in this way. After the roots have become 
strong in the water the plants can be taken out and placed in earth. Mee- 
han's Monthly says: "For this perhaps it is better to let the water con- 
tinue stagnant in the bottles. A change of water is not beneficial. A sau- 
cer of sand, filled with water is all that is needed to root many soft wood 
cuttings. These saucers with the cuttings should be kept shaded for a day 
or two, and then placed in the full light. If placed at once in the full light 
they are liable to wilt." 



WINDBREAKS IN HORTICULTURE. 

It is an established fact that orchard trees planted in the proper relation 
to a windbreak, either natural or artificial, make a thriftier growth and 
stand more upright. J. S. Harris, a veteran horticulturist, giving his ex- 
perience and observation, thus elaborates the practical benefits of the wind- 
break for orcharding: 

ECONOMIZES THE SNOW. 

"The windbreak of timber, to a certain extent, prevents the snows of win- 
ter from drifting or blowing away, and also saves the fallen foliage upon 
the ground where most needed, and at the same time prevents the soil from 
being so deeply frozen; consequently, there is less danger of injury to the 
roots. There being more snow on the ground to melt in the spring, the 
soil absorbs more moisture. 



ADAPTATION TO CLIMATIC ENVIRONMENT. 46 



BUDS NOT WINTER KILLED. 



"The buds of trees are less liable to be winter killed or injured in extreme 
weather, when properly sheltered, and the trees on the favorable side of a 
grove or belt will frequently blossom full when those upon the opposite side 
are killed. 



SAVES THE BLOSSOMS, 

"A windbreak upon the north and west side of the orchard and garden 
saves a crop of fruit by sheltering from northwest winds that often occur 
when trees and plants are in bloom, and from later colder snaps that often 
cause the greater part of the crop to blight and drop before half grown. 

UNIFORM BEARING. 

"Windbreaks very often save heavy-laden trees from being broken down 
or uprooted, or the fruit grown being blown off in heavy wind storms. 
They tend to make orchards more uniform in bearing. We have frequent- 
ly seen unprotected orchards barren of fruit, when those well protected 
were bearing heavily. 

SMALL FRUITS BENEFITED. 

"The belts and windbreaks are equally beneficial to the growing of small 
fruits, and in many places they cannot be successfully grown without some 
protection of that nature. The best grapes are always nearest to the shelter 
on the north and northwest. Currants, raspberries, strawberries and black- 
berries are always better for protection on the south and west, and need 
much less extra winter covering when thus protected, and for the very rea- 
sons heretofore mentioned, viz.: That windbreaks protect from cold, retain 
snow in winter and retard evaporation of moisture in summer. In many 
localities in this state it would be about out of the question to raise straw- 
berries without the protection of a timber belt or hedge. 

KITCHEN GARDEN WARMED UP. 

"Also the kitchen garden is greatly benefited by surrounding it with a 
timber windbreak. The soil becomes warmed up and in condition to plant 
earlier, most varieties will generally mature earlier and the yield will be 
larger and the quality better. 

LOCATION OF THE WINDBREAK. 

"If the country is nearly level, it is my opinion that a windbreak upon the 
west side of the orchard or fruit garden is always beneficial, also on the 
southwest and northwest; with ground sloping to the south and higher ele- 
vations adjoining, or near by on the north, the windbreak should be upon 
the south and southwest sides, and omitted on the north, except for grapes, 
strawberries and vegetables. In ground sloping to the north and northeast 
— which is generally recommended — the windbreak should be on the north 
and northwest sides, and if practical the north belt should be upon ground 



47 ' TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL. 

somewhat higher than the lowest part of the orchard. In all cases it would 
be better if there could be a strip of ground between the orchard and the 
shelter, provided it is a little lower than that upon which either of them 
stand. No greater depression than can be made by two or three plowings 
of the ground, finishing in the same dead furrow, will answer a very good 
purpose. Windbreak upon the south side of an orchard may safely stand 
nearer than upon other sides, but in no case should a break and orchard 
be so near together that the roots of the trees comprising them will eventu- 
ally run together and rob the soil of the nutriment and moisture needed for 
the well being of each other. 

DISTANCE FROM THE FRUIT TREES. 

"The inner line of the break on the north side of an orchard should be at 
least 1 5 feet inside of the next line, and far enough from the fruit trees to 
prevent reflected heat reaching back to them, and the trees in this line are 
better if not standing too close together. 

BROAD AND OPEN BREAK. 

"For the orchard alone I think a broad and rather open break o\ ever- 
greens and deciduous trees mixed would prove the best; for most other pur- 
poses close planting is probably the best." 

For a farm residence it would be a wise arrangement to have the wind- 
break of which Mr. Harris speaks, extensive enough to enclose not only the 
orchard, but all the home buildings, lawns and gardens. Too many trees 
is the "vice of excess," about as pernicious as the "vice of defect." As a 
general rule the groves around the farm houses on the prairie — if such 
exist at all — are too close and shadowy for good circulation, sunlight and 
healthfulness; always making troublesome snowdrifts. They should be dis- 
tant not less than two hundred feet from the house in the narrower part of 
the plat. Well to have the inside space a third longer than wide. But be- 
yond and outside of all the screens and open breaks, on the farm boundary, 
especially on the southern and the western sides, or where the cold and hot 
winds generally prevail, should be a broad dense one. 

CONSTRUCTION OF THE GENERAL WINDBREAK. 

Plant two rows of white willows on the outside, four feet apart and eigh- 
teen inches apart in rows. Then a space of about forty feet wide. There is 
where the snow is trapped in a huge, long drift like a sand dune. On the 
inner edge of this open space, plant say, two more willow rows as before. 
You must expect snow will break down many a willow limb, but this tree 
stands the racket, and will send up new trees next spring, keeping the con- 
tinuity of the belt. Now regular rows of other hardy trees four feet apart, 
promiscuously mixed for mutual protection and forest symmetry — the ash, 
elm, and box elder predominating, with here and there a soft maple, a 
black cherry, and a basswood. Under the protection of these have some 



WINDBREAKS IN HORTICULTURE. 48 

walnuts, butternuts and oaks, and inside of all, at distances not less 
than two rods apart, rows of pines and spruces. 

WINDBREAKS ALONE INSUFFICIENT. 

The correlation of the atmosphere with the soil is such, that, if the latteris 
not properly treated by methods before described, in vain may trees dis- 
pute the power of the winds. As is well known, hot winds do not materially 
injure plants until their high temperature, dryness and velocity have drained 
the soil of moisture. So long as moistuie remains in the soil in sufficient 
quantity to feed the roots, though the hot winds may scorch the tips of the 
blades and cause a wilting down, the plants often recover at night, and 
are generally found to be not seriously injured, 

DOWN POURS OF HEAT. 

Prof. I. M. Cline, of the Texas Weather Service, endorsed by other scien- 
tists, observed that atmospheric heat sometimes travels in narrow currents, 
ranging from one-hundred feet to half a mile or more in width, and are evi- 
dently down-pouring masses of dense, dry air, heated dynamically in de. 
scending. It is not to be inferred from this phenomenon wliich some of us 
have observed and most sensibly felt, that the condition of the soil of the 
country over which these burning currents sweep, is not a factor concerned, 
for no such currents obtain in the vicinity of dense timbers; their origin, 
therefore is traceable mainly to treeless, arid regions. 

HEAT ACCUMULATIONS. 

The diminishing pressure of the air over our vast prairies to the north- 
ward, centering on the sun-burned treeless regions far beyond the international 
boundary, is the condition inductive to our hot southerly winds. 

Clouds or any form of mists serve as furry blankets over the soil, keeping 
it largely from evaporating its moisture and mitigating the rigors of heat, 
where these vaporous conditions do not obtain and the skies are clear for days 
and weeks, the conduction and radiation of heat are quick and intense, 
giving rise to the low, barometric pressure and southerly winds that pelt 
us so. In an able paper on this subject, read before the Chicago Meteoro- 
logical Congress, Prof. Geo. E. Curtiss says: "Hundreds of miles of hot, 
dry earth contribute to maintain and feed the current and gathering strengthi 
as the sun mounts higher, of the hot winds sweeping over the defenceless 
prairie. The surface is heated to the high temperature necessary to the 
development of hot winds only where the ground is dry. The sun's heat 
falling on a moist soil is largely used in the work of evaporation, whence 
the accumulation of heat and the rise of surface temperatures, which would 
take place on a dry surface, is to a great degree prevented. In support of 
this, we find that the hot winds do not arise when the soil is moist, and that 
a rainstorm quickly brings them to an end. Conversely, the reports bear 
uniform testimony to the fact that periods of drouth are periods of hot winds, 
and the more prolonged, the more continuous and intense do they become. 



49 



TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL. 



All methods of cultivation which directly or indirectly help to increase or 
retain the moisture in the soil, will tend to ameliorate both the hot winds and 
their efifects." 

KNOTTY OR CLEAN TREES — WHICH ? 

Generally the terminal buds are stronger than the lateral ones; hence, the 
former lead, developing upward. This elongation is from the top or ter- 
minal bud; so that the distance from the base of the tree to the first limbs 
never changes, so long as the limbs remain on. To lengthen the tree-shaft, 
rub off the lateral buds, when the tree is a mere seedling, or cut off its 
lower limbs. 

HEARTWOOD. 

Heartwood or pith answers to the tree what the spinal cord does to the 
human body; the former sending off shoots that terminate in buds and 
limbs, the latter in nerves that ramify every part of the body. It is impor- 
tant that the pith be kept in a healthy condition, though it is not absolutely 
necessary to the existence of the tree, since it builds itself on the outside un- 
der the bark. 

HEART-ROOTED STUBS. 

As stated, a bud develops into a limb. That bud is a projection of the 
heartwood. The slender stub, whose external projection dies in deep shade, 
is as much an integument of the heartwood as is a nerve of the spinal col- 
umn. When the little limbs drop or are properly cut off from a healthy 
tree, the inside stubs remain perfectly sound, and under the "bite" of the 
healing bark, analogous with the human skin, the wounds speedily close 
over, and the living stubs are generally converted into clear grain wood. 
If the lower limbs remain to old age, decaying more and more, as they are 
apt where there is no shade to educe early self-pruning, the timber of the 
shaft is knotty, much to its commercial discount. In pines such knots are 
frequently encircled with a resinous substance, falling out when the log is 
cut into boards. In some trees, especially the broad leaved, the old stub is 
apt to die outright. Then the rain drips in and fungi grow there, the rot 
eating into the heart, greatly shortening its life and injuring the value of 
the tree. It is plain that all these misfortunes can be averted, only attend 
to it \n season. 

ROOT GROWTH OF TREES IN WINTER. 

Fred Nustbaumer, of the St. Paul public parks, says: "If the earth gets 
cold, the tree cannot form rootlets in sufficient quantity to retain its vitality 
during the winter. This seems, perhaps, to be rather queer, as a good 
many of you think that the tree does not need any sustenance dur- 
ing the winter, but it is nevertheless a fact that it needs a great deal of 
it, for the reason that every bit of sap evaporated by hard freezing weather 
must be counterbalanced and furnished by the roots to prevent the tree from 
getting winter killed. The tree, while in dormant condition, is by no means 



WINDBREAKS IN HORTICULTURE. 50 

lifeless, and the hard winter's frost has more strain on its vitality than pet 
haps the hot summer's sun. This is reason enough why v/e should not 
plant any sort of trees in the fall — not for Minnesota." 



RELIGIOUS VANDALISM. 

Says the New Jersey Forester: "The growing of Christmas trees for 
market, would be, if properly conducted, a legitimate and, no doubt, pro- 
fitable business. Although the custom is time honored and gives pleasure 
to children for a few days, it seems a shame to sacrifice thousands of beau, 
tiful young trees for such a useless purpose. There is hardly an old field in 
Southern New Jersey which does not show the work of Christmas thieves. 
They cut down the thriftiest cedars as soon as of a marketable size, and cut 
the tops out of full grown trees. All this is to celebrate a custom, the mean- 
ing of which nobody exactly knows. The city of Paris uses 40,000 Christ- 
mas trees each year." 

The timely suggestion of the New Jersey Forester is what the writer of 
this has all along advocated, especially in his last report. Were we not right ? 
Millions upon millions of young and most beautiful spruces and balsam firs 
are annually cut and shipped in carloads over the northwest, supplying even 
Chicago. This destruction of our most promising trees passes for a proper 
celebration of a religious anniversary. Let us not discount its beautiful 
significance, but if we must use trees, then raise them for the purpose and 
stop churchal vandalism upon what is absolutely needed to preserve our 
evergreen forests. 



FOREST GARDENING, 

One of the great discouragements to many farmers in planting trees is the 
fact that they cannot, in their day, reap the profit of timber maturity, for it 
takes a hundred years or more for our most valuable ones to perfect their 
qualities for the market. It would seem that a patriotic love of country, 
made prosperous by trees, should be consideration enough for such invest- 
ment. But the genius of foresight seldom obtains unless immediate or 
available profit in the near future is assured. If such men would pause 
and think, study and plan with a view to profit alone, and then push ahead 
in the tree business, they surely would find their forest patch is, all thino-s 
considered, ten times more profitable than an equal area of agricultural 
products. 



51 



TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL. 



COPPICE. 



Coppice is a growth of timber from a former stump, usually cut before 
maturity at special periods of time, according to circumstances and the uses 
to which the product is to be apphed. The object is to make the m.ost profit 
out of the forest with a view to reproduction at the least cost and the least 
injury to the plantation. 

Coppices cannot be successfully produced from the stools of pines, but 
they can from those of ashes, elms, oaks, soft maples, larches, willows, bass- 
woods, birches, alders, cottonwoods, poplars, locusts, and most of the other 
deciduous trees. 

As stated in a former article, where the object is profit-improvement cut- 
ting to regrove the trees from the stumps, studious care must be used so as 
not to injure the cambium of the bark, whence sprout the new shoots. The 
cut must be smooth and on a slant downward to prevent collection of 
moisture, leacling to decay, and as close to the ground as possible, so that 
the sprouts can form independent roots for new trees. 

It will not do to depend on sprouting alone, for repeated cuttings of this 
kind will in time run the stock out, the original roots failing to reproduce. 
Hence, seedlings should now and then be planted, and the layering of 
sprouts attended to, as needed to fill up the gaps. 

REPEATING THE CROP. 

The trees can be cut over again at periods varying from ten to thirty 
years, according to the growth of the species. It is obvious when the 
planter has a large variety to draw from, constituting a more perfectible 
forest, he can cut some for profit-improvement nearly every year, and find 
an increase of demand at every turn he makes. A few opportunities for 
money making along these lines are here adduced as encouragement for 
more extensive tree planting on the prairie. 

SUPPLIES FAST EXHAUSTING. 

"The entire forest area of the United States, according to the best author- 
ity," says Hon. W. W. Barrett, State Supt. Irrigation and Forestry, North 
Dakota, "is found to be less than five hundred million (500,000,000) acres, 
yielding an annual cut of near twenty-four billion (24,000,000,000) cubic feet 
of wood material per annum, giving an approximate value of one billion 
($1,000,000,000) dollars. This is an enormous amount, being more than the 
total value of the annual crop of wheat, rye, oats, potatoes, cotton and 
tobacco produced in the United States. The estimated consumption, based 
upon census and other figures, is near twelve billion (12,000,000,000) cubic 
feet of wood material in excess of yearly growth. To this must be added 
the loss by fires, estimated to be five billion (5,000,000,000) cubic feet per 
annum, on an average. This great cut and loss, each year, if placed in a 
compact body would make an area of not far from thirty millions (30,000,- 
000) of acres, or near three-fifths as large as the great state of North Uako- 



FOREST GARDENING. 52 



ta. And the increase of consumption is near 30 per cent, each decade. 
Thus at the present rate of consumption, with no increasement in any way 
of domestic culture, it is calculated by those best informed upon the subject 
that the entire timber of the United States will be utterly destroyed long be- 
fore another century shall roll around. Hence the absolute necessity of a 
new awakening in the subject of forestry, the conservation of the present 
and the planting and cultivation of more timber throughout the Union." 

SURETIES OF MONEY MAKING. 

These vast consumptions, while alarming, are sureties of money making 
to those who engage in forest gardening. Look at some of these figures on 
this line. According to U. S. Statisticians, 300,000 new telegraph poles are 
annually cut and erected; 3,000,000 cords of wood consumed annually for 
brick making alone; 100,000 cords of soft maple for shoe pegs; 390,000 
cubic feet of pine for lucifer matches; 1,000,000 cords of birch for boot lasts 
and tool handles; 500,000,000 feet of spruce for wood pulp. Do not such 
enterprises — and they are fractions of great wholes — give assurance ot profit 
in wood culture? 

BARK INDUSTRY. 

Safe gains these days of competition come from economizing to the 
minutest parts. Bark for tanning purposes pays. Profit can be derived 
from the leaves of our common sumach for tanning white morocco leather. 
The bark of our white and red oaks, raised as coppice, when not more than 
fifteen or twenty years old can be profitably used for tanning and the peeled 
woods for tool handles and spokes, and the refuse for fuel. Do you know 
the value of willow bark? It tans the beautiful Russian leather, and is used 
in varied forms of medicine. There is profit in the bark of alders that can 
be raised extensively on our abandoned wet places. 

CHARCOAL INDUSTRY. 

Coppice hard woods are in demand for charcoal to be used in our innum- 
erable smelting furnaces. Where are our planted trees that can be spared 
to supply the paying demand? It is also wanted for a filtering and deodor- 
izing agent. It is wanted from our dogwoods and alders and willows for 
gun- powder. Even the smoke, arising from the charcoal manufacture, has 
a value in the market, containing as it does amethylic alcohol convertible in- 
to "wood vinegar," and by other chemical processes into useful acids, 
among which is an acetate used in the formation of white lead. It has been 
estimated that a cord of dry hardwood converted into charcoal for iron- 
smelting purposes, the smoke of which is utiUzed, will give a total of $g to 
$10. 

TAR AND PITCH. 

Why must Minnesota depend entirely upon the southern states or Euro 
pean countries for tar, pitch and turpentine, when we have trees that can 



53 



TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL. 



be appropriated for these purposes? Immense quantities of these sub- 
stances are manufactured in the North of Europe and Siberia from the Scotch 
pine that we can and do successfully raise on our pra.iries and sandy places 
of Eastern Minnesota. The process of manufacturing the tar is so simple 
and almost costless, any one can profitably engage in the industry. "A 
hole is dug in the side of the bank in which billets of wood are heaped up 
and covered cl osely with turf or earth; a fire is 'then kindled from below 
and the slow combustion causes the tar to exude from the wood and flow out 
from the heap into barrels placed below to receive it. " By distillation and 
other chemical arts it is converted into wood vinegar, creosote, oil of tar, 
and a residue of pitch. 

WOOD PULP. 

Pulp was used first only for the manufacture of paper; now-a-days it is 
transformed into tubs, pails, barrels, water pipes, wash boards, kitchen 
utensils, doors, caskets, flower-pots, horse shoes, carriage bodies, floor cover- 
ings, furniture, building ornamentations, and various other useful and 
beautiful structures. Indeed, textile material resembling leather, cloth and 
silk have been manufactured from it. It forms a protective armor to torpedo 
rams. Bullets for rifle use are mide of it. An entire hotel in Hamburg, 
Germany, has been constructed from it. Food products are derived from it, 
also alcohol. There seems to be no end to its uses. As the soft woods 
contain more cellulose than the hard woods, the former has as yet the higher 
commercial value. 

According to statistics of the wood pulp industry of the United States, 1890, 
there are 237 mills, having a total capacity, mechanical and chemical com- 
bined, of developing daily 4,000,000,000 pounds of pulp. In the last eight 
years the business has increased nearly 500 per cent. In 1888 the pulp 
stumpage was valued at $2,235,000; the ground product was estimated at 
$12,375,000. The figures also show that the present consumption of wood 
per annum for pulp is 1,000,000 cords. The percentage goes up with the 
increase of demand, and in a few years more, millions of cords will swell to 
billions. It is successfully manufactured from poplar, spruce, pine, willow, 
bass-wood, cedar, hemlock, soft maple and birch. At present, the first two 
kinds are mostly used. They are both easily raised on the prairie. Who- 
ever engages in developing them is sure of good profits from the two latter 
trees, especially when they are but ten to fifteen years old. 

WILLOW WARE, 

The business of raising willows for certain kinds of furniture and baskets 
is growing in importance in our country. The common osier, Silax Vim- 
ifialis, has pliant shoots well fitted for weaving hoops and baskets. The 
red osier, S. rubra, is much cultivated in Europe for the manufacture of 
crates, heavy basket and barrel hoops, S. purpura has shoots and leaves 
so bitter, rabbits and other animals will not eat them; hence makes a good 
fence. The cultivated shoots are long, clean and pliable, and very popular 



FOREST GARDENING. 54 



for basket work. It is sometimes called whip -cord or swallowtail willow. 
S. triandra produces very white rods when peeled, which can be split up 
very finely, so as to be used in the finer kinds of basket, chair and wicker- 
work. These two last are well adapted to our climates, succeeding well on 
low wet or rich, high, dry lands. 

Under ordinary circumstances cultivated willows, even during the first 
three years, will produce 3,000, to 5,000 peeled willows per^acre; usual price 
en cents per pound, wholesale. Raised from cuttings. Plow and cultivate 
as for other plants. Set them one foot apart in rows three feet apart, press 
the top bud down at least one inch below the ground surface. This is a good 
rule for planting any tree cuttings. In removing for the market, the shoots 
are cut close down and even below the surface, so that no stumps or stools 
are formed. The whole field can be afterwards harrowed safely for the 
roots. The cost of properly preparing the land and planting ought not ex- 
ceed $115 to the acre; to this must be added the cost of the cuttings, which 
is between twenty and twenty-five dollars to the acre. 

PROFIT OF RAISING BIRCHES. 

' Though our white birches often monopolize our burnt districts and other 
denuded lands, excluding more valuable trees, they there offer new remuner- 
ative industries. White birches, even down to two inches diameter, are utilized 
these days. An enterprising firm in Alpena, Mich., annually manufactures 
15,000,000 thread spools from these young trees. In Maine the industry is 
of equal importance. If the cutters will only manage for coppice crops, as 
herein instructed, they will have a permanent paying business in this line, 
at the same time preserving the continuity of the forest. These trees can 
be easily raised by the millions on the prairie. 

OTHER USES OF SMALL TREES. 

Hoop poles, hop poles, telegraph poles, railroad ties, all such have a 
market sale. Even umbrella and walking sticks are called for, and suitable 
for this purpose, are our young red and jack pines, spruces, bir;hes, elms, 
maples, oaks, box elders, diamond willows, etc. In two or three years 
some of these will be large enough to cut. Presenting this industry as a 
lucrative one, Chicago "Hardwood" says: "America fnrnishes a great varie- 
ty of woods and canes for both walking and umbrella sticks, and a number 
of concerns make a business of collecting and dealing in them, and a large 
number are exported to Europe, while a much larger num.ber are imported 
from every quarter of the globe. Millions of young sapHngs from the forests 
of the United States and Mexico, and canes from the brakes of the South, 
are consumed annually in the trade." 

RAISING HAZELNUTS. 

The fall of 1895 the State Forestry Association sent out over 40,000 native 
hazelnuts, Coxylus Americana, mailed in packages of 100 each, free to 



55 



TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL. 



citizens of Minnesota, exclusively tor trial in the prairie regions. On testing 
their soundness, soon after gathering them, we found more than 75 per cent 
were worm-eaten, showing they are nuts that, like acorns, must have special 
treatment in their incipient stages by vigorous applications of insecticides. 
This done, raising them for the market, as well as for the home to "crack o' 
wintry nights," can be made to pay well. It is stated an average crop rightly 
managed, is about 1500 pounds per acre, and the usual price in the market 
20 cents a quart. In their thrifty condition they do the best when standing 
from eight to ten feet apart. A larger crop and better quality are secured 
if the plants are kept measurably dwarfed. They should receive the ordi- 
nary care of other orchard fruits. Those in their wild state, growing in thick 
ets and margins of our woods, are not as large as the properly cultivated, 
but all such are smaller, yet sweeter, than some of their improved varieties. 
There are numerous varieties, which may be classed under two heads, 
nuts and filberts. The husks of the latter are much larger than those of 
the former. There are different varieties also of the filberts; some have 
long and some short nuts; the latter bearing the name of cobnuts. The 
Spanish or Barcelona nuts are most sought. Trade in them is immense, 
about half a million dollars worth being annually imported into England 
alone. They are equally popular in our country. It is doubtful if the 
Spanish filbert can be raised in our climate. We better rely upon what is 
indigenous. There is a species of filbert growing in some sandy regions of 
Wisconsin, also on Turtle Mountain, North Dakota. On further research 
we may find them growing wild in our northern woods. The plants can 
be procured from suckers or layers, as well as from the nuts. Being valua- 
ble brushwood protection to our forest trees, and bearing delicious nuts, al- 
ways in marketable demand, it is to be hoped that this hardy shrub will 
receive the attention it deserves. 



TEST OF THE FITNESS OF TREES. 



One of the most promising features of successful forestry in connection 
with horticulture is the divisional work of the Experiment Station at St. 
Anthony Park, located at different centralized portions of the state. The 
one in Lyon county has made a most promising beginning under the man- 
agement of K. B. Norswing. Soon as the divisional station, located at 
Crookston, Polk county, is in working order, the people of Northwestern 
Minnesota ca'n readily learn what trees are adaptable there. Another one 
is soon to be located in some wooded portion of Northeastern Minnesota. 
Testing the fitness of our trees and fruit plants for special territory is a sure 
guarantee of practical forestry and horticulture under diverse environments.. 



FOREST GARDENING. 



56 



The following trial list of trees furnished by Prof. Green, planted at Coteau 
Farm, Lyon Co., spring of 1895, by Horticultural Division of Experiment 
Station, is given, not as a positive proof ot adaptability in every case, but to 
demonstrate how fast and solid we are moving on the forestry lines. As 
the trees were selected for hardiness, the probability is that most of them 
will prove worthy of recommendation for all that region. 

Acer dasycarpum, 
" saccharinum. 



" platanoides, 
Beiula alba, 
Celiis occidenialis 
Jraxinus viridis, 

" sa7nbucifolia, 
Juglans nigra, 
Morus Tartarica, 
Negnndo aceroides, 
Populiis alba, 

" " var nivea argentect, 

" monilifera, 
" "var Van Gertie, 

" certinensis, 
Prunus seroiina, 
Pyrus Americana, 
Quercus macrocarpa, 
Salix Alba, 

" vitellina vg.r aurea, 
Tilia Americana , 
Ulmus, Americana, 

" racemosa, 
Abies balsamea, 
Pinus strobtis, 
" sy Ives iris, 
" ponderosa, 
" Mughus, 
' ' resinosa, 

Picea, 

" exceha, 

" pungens, 

" FMgletnami 
Pseiidoisuga iaxifolia, 
Junipcrus Virginiana, 
Thuja occidenialis, 
Larix Enropea, 
Robinia pseudacacia, 



Soft maple- 
Rock " 
Norway maple. 
European White Birch. 
Hackberry. 
Green Ash. 
Black " 
Black Walnut. 
Russian Mulberry. 
Box Elder. 
White Poplar. 
Silver 

Cottonwood. 
Van Gert Poplar. 
Russian Poplar. 
Black Cherry. 
Mountain Ash. 
Burr Oak. 
White Willow. 
Golden Willow. 
Basswood. 
White Elm. 
Rock " 
Balsam Fir. 
White Pine. 
Scotch " 
Bull 

Dwarf " 
Norway" 
Jack " 
White Spruce. 
Norway " 

Colorado Blue Spruce. 
Engleman's Spruce. 
Douglas Fir. 
Red Cedar. 
Arbor Vitae. 
European Larch. 
Locust. 



57 TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL. 

Rhanmus Catharticus, Buckthorn. 

Cornus stolanifera, Red Dogwood. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 

From Felton, Clay County. 

In a letter to F. S. & H., assigned to me to answer, Joseph Ban^_'. men- 
tioning his fine grove of cottonwoods, says: 

"They are a soft wood and won't last long. Would like to plant acorns, 
but do not know how to prepare them. I cultivate my trees till they are 
three years old, then I mean to plant grass seeds in the patch, and with the 
grass would like to plant acorns, so that when the soft wood is cut off I may 
have a young growth of longer lasting timber to take its place.'' 

If all our other tree planters would "go and do likewise," our groves and 
windbreaks would soon be like virgin woods, grand and permanent in their 
variety when not spoiled by the ax-man and the fire. You better not sow 
grass seed in that patch; grasses bind and choke the very life out of our 
prairie trees. They prevent water percolation and air circulation. In lieu 
plantvarious fruit-bearing shrubs, such as sand cherries, wild raspberries, 
gooseberries, dewberries, highbush cranberries, hazlenuts and whatever else 
may be useful for berries and for protection to the roots of the trees, hold- 
ing the rain and snows, and keeping the soil soft and friable for vigorous 
tree growth. In the woods nothing conserves the moisture as living mats 
of shrubs, mosses and leaves. Acorns easily dry up when exposed, des- 
troying germination. Plant soon as gathered from the tree. If your cot- 
tonwoods are densely shading, thin out the forest in the summer following 
the replanting, and allow sufficient sunlight with the necessary shade for 
the new candidates. Take into your practical judgment this fact, that the 
better class of trees you plant cannot, when young, cope with the pioneers 
during the ordeals of extreme cold and hot winds. The more shady and less 
valuable trees must stand as protecting guards over the little fellows strug- 
gling for existence. Thinning must be according to their needs, giving the 
"elect" the advantage for growth. Do not thin in the fall, winter or early 
spring. If you thin before the sap starts, numerous shoots will grow from 
the stools, making your Cottonwood grove denser than before — a condition 
of shade defeating your object, It is not wise to exclude entirely the light- 
needing from the shade-enduring trees; let them both stay in our prairie 
groves, but give the "fittest" the supremacy, such as the ashes, elms, oaks 
and pines. We cannot afford to run the pioneer woods out of use. 



FOREST GARDENING. 58 



From Cottonwood, Lyon county. 

J. C. Townsend commenced tree planting in 1878, and is "at it yet." His 
plantation is in the shape of an L, the longest side north and south, cutting 
the western winds. It covers about seven acres, consisting of cottonwoods, 
white ashes, so^t maples, box elders, (which four he recommends as leading) 
willows, white elms, oaks, basswoods, butternuts, walnuts, ironwoods, ever- 
greens, plums, "ranging all the way from three inches to fifty feet high." 
He thinks "one sixteenth part of every section of the prairie lands should 
be planted to trees." Where vacancies occur in his plantation, he puts in 
walnuts. Has now half an acre or more planted with this tree. Says he 
"will get there after a while" and that he "wouldrather have twenty acres 
of walnuts in good bearing condition, than the profits on eighty acres of 
farm, crops, for the walnuts are a lasting profit for the next fifty years." He 
evidently loves his high calling, "making more beautiful our homes, en- 
hancing the value of our farms and softening the ragged edge of the Min- 
nesota blizzard." 

From Ibsen, Wilkin county. 

E. C. King reports that very few trees are planted in his town, being 
newly settled. He says: "In 1890 I planted 3000 yellow cottonwoods 
which are now from ten to fifteen feet high. In 1891, I planted about the 
same number, besides a large quantity of ash seed each spring, also willow 
cuttings, box elder seeds, Russian Mulberry, English buckthorn. The late 
frosts of last May, 1895, killed about 2,000 of my young trees. For wind- 
breaks I would advise planting yellow cottonwoods, two feet apart in the 
row, and the rows eight feet apart, and between the four or five rows, plant* 
ing wild plums, cherries, gooseberries, grapes and other wild fruits. Would 
advise planting different kinds of trees, such as box elders, ash, elm and 
aspen to m ike a handsome grove." 

Mr. King is setting a good example in the tree business for his neighbors 
to copy. To forestall damage by the frost, use the smudge — anything that 
will make a wide-spreading smoke. 

From Breckenridge, Wilkin county. 

Trees planted in this locality that have not had good care are generally a 
failure. They need better care than is usually given a corn field. The mis- 
take many make is in ridging the dirt about the trees to cover grass and 
weeds and usually that is the end of cultivating. The prairie sod, dry 
weather and fires do the rest. Those commonly planted here are cotton- 
wood, box elder, ash, elm, willow, and balm of gilead. I prefer them in 
this order: Elm first, then ash, cottonwood, box elder, balm of gilead and 
willow. The worms trouble the willows so much that they are not desirable 
in many seasons, and even the box elders will die from some cause. Think 
it is principally a lack of moisture. A few rows of cottonwoods and, adjoin- 



59 



TREE PLANTER'S AIANUAL. 



ing on the south, several rows of wild plums make a fair windbreak. 
Evergreens, so far are generally a failure here. 

H. E. BAILEY. 

That's a "new fad" — ridging the dirt about the trees to kill the weeds and 
grass ! No wonder those farmers fail. Why, it should be right the reverse 
— the ground hollowed out a little about the trunks so that the water may 
drip down the roots. 

From New Ulm, Brown county. 

Hon. VV. H. Heideman reports that "J. F. Neumann will utilize ten acres 
of his farm near the river in planting hickory and walnut trees." Will Mr. 
Neumann report his success and method of management? There are several 
walnut orchards in the more southerly portion of the state. It would en- 
courage others if the proprietor will give reports to the secretary of the 
Forestry Association. It is estimated that walnuts alone pay far more than 
apples from an orchard of equal area. A walnut orchard is far more hardy 
and durable. When the trees reach their maturity, and are allowed to grow 
tall and timber-like, each tree is worth on an average, all of fifty dollars. 

From Ashby, Grant Co. 

Tree planting here is in a very rudimentary state, most farmers being 

contented with a few rows on the north and west side of their dwellings. 

For this purpose the box elder and Cottonwood are the most popular as well 

as the hardiest. White willow, although not so commonly planted, is also 

perfectly hardy. Ash and elm also do well, but are not planted to any 

extent and not for windbreaks. Lombardy poplars were quite popular on 

account of their rapid and erect growth, but the oldest ones are now fast 

dying out and people have quit planting them. Oaks are not planted but 

are very common in our woods. They would no doubt succeed if planted 

under right conditions. 

A. E. Stene. 

Raising the Lombardy poplar is a waste of money and labor. It is pretty 

for a few years and then becomes a miseiable looking thing. 

From Redwood Falls, Redwood county. 

James Longbottom has a tree plantation of his own raising that is now 22 
years old, covering 15 acres, consisting of white ash, soft maple, black wal- 
nut, elm, box elder, white willow and Cottonwood, all of which he considers 
reliable except the Cottonwood, a large number of which is dying these late 
years of dryness. He, too, started his forest in a cornfield, growing corn 
with the trees for two years; worked the ground till the trees were eight to 
ten feet high. "They now average a foot in diameter; some of them are 
over two feet in diameter." Mr. Longbottom shows how sure is success on 
the prairie, when tree planters manage rightly. With others he thinks one- 
sixteenth of all our prairie lands should be planted to trees. He has "given 
away thousands of young trees to new settlers, for trees growing look more 
like making a home." 



CORRESPONDENCE. 60 



From Brooklyn, Hennepin County. 

The soil in our town is light and sandy, and since the woods have been 
cut away, it drifts badly at certain seasons of the year. We have decided 
to plant a grove. We planted a lot of elm and soft maple seed last summer, 
which have made a good growth. 

Mrs. Rosa B. Green. 

From Anoka, Anoka County. 

John R. Barrett, reports terrible winds in his sandy part of the state, 1894, 
sweeping out the corn from the ground in all exposed places: "Trees, trees, 
O lor trees to protect us from the scorching, blighting winds. My trees 
have saved me, yet I need more and will have them. My neighbors, hav- 
ing less trees have suffered the more; some lots ruined or nearly so. In some 
instances the wind dug deep holes in the ground; acres of them. Trees, 
trees, trees we must have, else this land will be a desert waste in a short 
time." 

These two cases of sand drifting are by no means isolated or exceptional. 
Fast as the forests are destroyed in such soil, so accumulate the calamities 
just mentioned. Replanting trees is the only antidote. See management 
of sand dunes, &c. 

From Hendrum, Norman County. 

Evergreens here are only experimental. The few I have are neither dead 
nor healthy. Scotch pine seems to have a good complexion; so the Norway 
spruce and a species of the arbor vitge. Of deciduous trees, my favorites for 
the bleak prairies are the elm, ash and northern grown cottonwood. Other 
good trees of rank growth and fine appearance here are ironwood, bass- 
wood, box elder, v/ild plum and choke cherry. 

Ole j. Hagen. 

By the protection of forest trees and proper soil and culture management, 
Mr. Hagen is making encouraging experimentation with fruit plants in his 
region of the Red River Valley. He calls attention to the northern grown 
cottonwood, claiming it is superior to what we have farther south. 

From Arthur, Traverse county. 

"I did not plough or cultivate the ground in any way in the spring before 
planting, desiring to let it remain firm so as to exclude air in too great a de- 
gree from the roots of the trees, and to guard against undue evaporation. I 
planted the trees on the east side of each cornstalk hili and close to same, 
being four feet apart, which saved the necessity of marking. The object in 
planting particularly on the east side of the corn stalks is, first to keep the 
trees in straight rows; second, that they may receive the morning and fore- 
noon sun, and be protected or shaded from the scorching rays of the after- 
noon sun. 

JAMES H. FLOOD. 



6 1 TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL. 

Aside from the advantages cited by our correspondent, corn belongs with 
that class of plants which extracts from the air nitrogenous properties which 
the young trees rieed, also in a special manner fits the salts in the soil for 
root developnveftt, ensuring healthful growth. 

From Weib, Faribault county. 

Moses H, Bragdon has a small seed planted nursery and is setting a com- 
mon sense example for other farmers to copy — "raising white pine trees from 
seeds." 

F rom Glyndon, Clay county. 

C. H. Bassett proves that even the walnuts, with proper treatment, will 
do well on or near the 46th parallel. He says: "It may be in order for me 
to say that we have growing in our yard, walnut and butternut trees which 
bore seed the past season, as they have done before. The nuts were planted 
where the trees now stand." 

From Redwood Falls, Redwood county. 

"I have 200 butternut trees 5 years old from i to 2 inches in diameter and 
from 3 to S>^ ft. high. They are not thrifty, and winter kill at end of the 
branches. Have mulched them this season with coarse manure, but it has 
had no effect yet on account of the dry season." 

FRANK E. KENNEDY. 

I have known them to kill back so year after year, but afterwards get 
acclimated and sound to the terminal bud. Protect them on the windward 
side. 

From Great Falls, Montana. 

Think of what H. O. Phillips is doing in the arid regions, "O, ye of little 
faith!" "I have about 400 box elders raised from the seeds upon the bench 
land vvithout irrigation. I put the seed in three years ago and have now 
trees from three to five feet high." 

From Brunswick, Kanabec county. 

S. E. Tallman, lumberman, calls attention to township 38, range 25 of 
his county: "It is the best and cheapest site for experimenting in reforest 
ing that I know of anywhere within reach of St. Paul and Minneapolis. The 
land having once been heavily timbered with both pine and nearly every 
variety of hardwoods, by replanting such on the land formerly occupied by 
same species of timber, we would be assured of the best results, with the 
least chances for failure; then the large number of dams built by the beavers 
and also those built and now abandoned by lumbermen could be repaired, 
which would make the water question almost a certainty," 

Why cannot he and other business citizens of that promising region of 
our state, project a movement that will secure eventually a vote of the peo- 
ple of his county to make a forest reserve of that township, owned and 
guarded by the county? 



CORRESPONDENCE. 62 



From Lakeside, Renville county. 

N. A. Vanmeter, working for a "grove in embryo," promoted by the 
Forestry Association says: "Am enjoying a soft maple grove of 800 tices, 
which I set out in 1870, also 10,000 white willow put out three to sevea 
years ago. I set out some nearly every year and cultivate them like corn." 

From Otisco, Waseca county. 

Eli Bishman says he has from time to time transplanted small oak trees, 
different sizes, but "when Sept. comes they always look dry." September 
is generally our dry month. In transplanting young oaks the tap root gen- 
erally has to be cut off, leaving comparatively but few fibrous feeders to 
support the trees. Hence, the safest way for raising any of the tap-rooting 
trees is to plant the nuts. But you can surely raise oaks from acorns by 
making a bed, say six inches deep, on a brick or plank pavement, and 
planting the acorns there, keeping the soil properly moist. The roots will 
then spread themselves out horizontally, safe for transplanting next year. 

A word about the Jack oak acorns sent for trial in the fall of '94. Re- 
ports are various, some that they sprouted up and are doing well. Thos. 
H. Smith of Noxon, Montana, states his grew the first year three feet high. 
But most of the returns are unfavorable. Doubtless a large number of 
them dried in the embryo while in transit, or while in the dry ground at the 
start. I was unable to procure any this fall, '95. To compensate for the 
disappointment I mailed hazelnuts to most of the applicants this fall, all I 
could purchase, and failed to complete the list. Some other kinds of seeds 
will be sent to the balance. 

John Soldner, of Cashel, Minn, states that "owing to the dry month of 
April the most of them came up between the 15th of May and the 15th of 
June. I have now 76 growing out of the 100. I think about 90 came up, 
but the cut worms took some. The seedlings v/ere given no special care, 
except to keep them from being smothered by the weeds. They are now 
5 to 6 inches high." Reporting his general tree planting, he adds that he 
"commenced tree planting last year; have growing 1,100 of box elders, 
ashes, maples, elms and cottonwoods; 1,500 seedlings for next spring's 
planting, also planted 800 willow cuttings." This tree protection has also 
given him "a fair start in small fruits." 

From Graceville, Big Stone county. 

In '92 and '93 Henry Hanson planted two windbreaks on his farm, one 
in a rectangle, the other L shaped; the trees consisting of box elder, white 
ash, elm, white willow, cottonwood and jack oak, making about eight acres. 
He considers the three first are leading trees for the prairie, and his judg- 
ment is to be credited, for he succeeds in raising trees. After planting in a 
sensible way he studiously kept his forest plantations free from weeds and 
grasses by frequent use of the hoe and cultivator, stopping such work the 
first part of July. In case grass became troublesome, he mulched such 



63 TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL. 

spots with straw and killed it out. All his trees have had vigorous growth. 
Says he "has trimmed a part and think I will trim the rest." See reasons 
in this treatise why he should not do it except when specially necessary to 
remove delects in growth. About twenty-five per cent ofthe jack oak 
acorns sent him "seem to be doing well." 

From Buffalo Lake, Renville county. 

N. L. Monson says: "As we have a small grove of swamp oak, I have 
been thinking of grafting some jack oaks on them, if it can be done. It 
would make a good windbreak without waiting for slow growth of seedlings." 

Practical if the two trees generally agree to the union. I would select 
young trees, and for cions have this year's growth. 

From Supt. Public Instruction. 

St. Paul, Minn., October i6, 1894. 

My Dear Mr. Barrett. — The Forest Tree Planters' Manual, which you 
kindly sent me, is a valuable book for the purpose for which it was designed. 
Every one interested in tree growmg — and this should include everybody — 
can learn something to his advantage from your unpretentious little volume. 
I knov/ I shall make good use of it myself and that others can. 

Suggestion — The trouble with most of our shade trees, is the drouth in 
late summer and early fall. Would it not be well to remark thatarbor-vitae, 
balsam fir, white birch and many other trees - designating the varieties — 
will not stand protracted dry weather, excepting favorable soil? Would it 
not also be a good plan to say that Scotch pines, dwarf mountain pines, buf- 
falo berries, sand cherries, etc., will live through any drouth they are likely 
to encounter in Minnesota? 

W. W. Pendergast. 

The prolonged and severe drouth that summer and early fall has given 
our plants a severe strain to live. It will prompt people of our dry climate 
to be very choice as to selection. I have noticed that the ash has withstood 
the drouth better than any other deciduous trees, and that too, in diverse 
soils. This is doubtless due to the fact that the evaporative power ofthe ash 
is small compared with some other tree?, and naturally has a long, pene- 
trating tap root that will find moisture if it is in the ground. Adaptation to 
soil is a very important matter. Let the reader note what Prof. P. says as to 
reliable selections for drouth conditions. 

From Clinton, Conn. 

As the following letter is important for the friends of forestry, I publish it 
entire. Prof. Northrop is the originator ofthe "Village Improvement Socie- 
ty," and is a most efficient leader in the right observance of Arbor Day and 
the sylvan ornamentation of our homes, and is well posted in practical fores- 
try which he defends with a strong brain-battery: 

J. O. Barrett, Sec'y. Minn. State Forestry Ass'n. 

My Dear Sir: Thanks for the "Forest Tree Planter's Manual," and con- 
gratulations on the good work you are doing for Minnesota: Have you 



CORRESPONDENCE. 64 

had experience in planting black walnuts? Gov. J. Sterling Morton sent 
me a quantity grown on his trees. He planted these nuts at "Arbon Lodge." 
He sent them as soon as mature with the soft shucks on, and with the di- 
rections repeated which he gave me when I was his guest at Arbon Lodge, 
Nebraska City. "Plant soon as possible and five inches deep. Never let 
them dry." I have thus planted and given to my townsmen. They have 
done well and are now bearing nuts and have borne for three years. Mor- 
ton says: "The soft shuck is nature's nutriments for the sprout." 

Most cordially yours, 
B. G. Northrop. 

From Halstad, Norman county. 

Rev. O. A. Th. Solem, a judicious and successful tree raiser, says: "The 
best trees for the Red River Valley are such as have been growing wild 
along the rivers here. We once had red oaks in abundance, also white elm 
and basswood. There seem to be two varieties of the box elder here, one 
a light color, and one more dark growing in low places near the river; a 
poor tree here. The ash is a very nice tree. We have several varieties of 
native poplar and willow, and in the eastern part of the county, numerous 
birches." 

The Rev. gentleman has a nursery of his own in which he is successfully 
raising the American and European Larch, European white birch, white 
willows, Russian willows, white elm. He also has a rich variety of ever- 
greens which as a whole, well endured the drouth of '94. He recommends 
protecting such by deciduous trees, more especially on the south side, and 
white willows for outside rows to a windbreak. "The Am. white spruce," 
he adds, "is a lovely tree, hardy, and a rapid grower." 

From Osage, Iowa. 

The following extract from a letter in respect to shaping young evergreens 
for ornamentation, seems to be the reverse of the views given before in this 
treatise relative to their injury from bleeding. We should be glad for glean- 
ings from all possible standpoints of experience. I endorse the position 
taken by the Nebraska horticulturists, that "forest trees do best when they 
prune themselves," and the statement of the French forester, Carriere, that 
evergreens, even for ornamentation, are safest when allowed to balance 
themselves, aided by a few art touches of ours to improve their vigor and 
beauty. Those who want to train their trees to suit their fancy, will find 
Mr. Gard ner's instruction of special value: 

"In regard to pruning evergreens, they can be made to grow in any re 
quired shape. Suppose the spruces or pines or arbor vitass are two to three 
feet high, and you wish to grow them in symmetrical cone shape. When 
the new shoots have about obtained their full length the latter part of June 
or early July, cut all the new growth back to one inch for even balance all 
round. Do not cut the leader. During the remainder of the season, buds 
will form on the stubs of new growth. Buds will also appear bursting 
through the bark on the one year old wood, and frequently from the two 



65 TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL. 

years old. But for the cutting back of the shoots these buds would forever 
remain dormant. If the trees are of considerable size, say five to eight feet 
and have never been pruned, then, early in the spring, cut off all branches 
that hang over a lower branch. Make the lower branches the longest, and 
each succeeding set, as you go up should be shortened-in. At the proper 
time, when the tree has completed its new growth cut it back as in the first 
case to about one inch, where it is desirable to do so, to fill up a space, for 
instance. When transplanting these trees, we nearly always clip the tops 
in as soon as set to balance the loss of roots. If it is required to trim up trees 
bean pole fashion, cutting off all the lower limbs one-third the height of the 
tree, do it early in the summer, then it will give the wounds a chance to 
heal before cold weather comes. Dead limbs should be cut ofit and removed 
at any time. If you wish to dwarf a tree and keep it for many years about 
the same height, then when you are cutting the new growth back in the lat- 
ter part of June, cut the leader off also. This clipping back the new growth 
must be repeated year after year for the best results. The longer it is kept 
up the more dense the foliage of the tree will be. The cutting off of the new 
growth is best done with a pair of hedge-shears, blades about eight inches 
in length, such as nurserymen generally use." 

THE BEECH, Fagus Ferrugitiea. 

Several correspondents inquire about the beech, wishing to raise them in 
Minnesota. It is precarious. Failures thus far, with few exceptions, are the 
rule. It needs special protection and care. Well enough to have it on the 
lawn; if it survives, it is there very pretty. I have seen whole forests of it in 
Wisconsin, near Lake Michigan, about on our parallel. The time has not 
come when we can rely on it for a farm tree. We must first pave the way 
for its safe advent with our native trees. In the forest it is tall, straight; 
grayish bark; in the open space where it can live, its branches reach the 
ground, having a beautiful cone-shaped crown. 

GRAFTING FOREST TREES. 

To frequent inquiries as to whether diverse species of trees can be suc- 
cessfully grafted, I have to say, No; the trees must belong to the same fami- 
ly, and be affinities or the grafting is a failure. Nor can two varieties of the 
same family be made by grafting to fruit the qualities of both. The graft 
simply roots itself in the other tree, appropriates the vitalities of the other 
tree, and transforms such vitalities into its own, ever preserving its own 
special identity. There is a very divinity in nature that will not allow us to 
lose any of her lifelinks by grafting or otherwise. Creations are her own 
not ours. The greatly desired improvement must be first in selection of 
varieties— the most healthful and beautiful stock— and evolve higher to- 
ward the perfectible through seeds mainly whose flowers were judiciously 
poUenized. This is the way we obtain better roses, better apples, better 
plums. 



BIRDS AND TREES. (£ 



BIRDS AND TREES. 

The chief of the division of ornithology of the Agricultural Department 
has recently made a report on the results of his examination of the contents 
of the stomachs of hawks, owls, crows, blackbirds, and other North Ameri- 
can birds supposed to be enemies of the farmers. His report is said to 
prove the popular idea to be largely erroneous that blackbirds, hawks and 
other birds for the slaughter of which many states give bounties, are de- 
structive of crops. Ninety-five per cent of the food of these birds was 
found to be field mice, grasshoppers, crickets, etc., which are infinitely 
more destructive of crops than they. Crows are accused of eating corn 
and destroying eggs, poultry and wild birds, but the examination proves 
that they eat injurious insects and destructive animals, and that although 
twenty- five per cent of their food is corn, it is mostly waste corn picked up in 
the fall and winter. It was also found that crows eat ^g'g shells to a very 
limited extent, for the time. Crows eat also ants, beetles, bugs, flies, grubs, 
caterpillers, etc., which do much damage. The cuckoos were also found 
to be very useful birds. — Field and Stream, 

We have thirty species of insects which subsist on our common garden 
vegetables. Our apple orchards have fifty kinds of insect enemies. Against 
these regular enemies, the woodpeckers, native sparrows, orioles, bluebirds, 
thrushes, robins, nuthatches, vireos, and other birds are making steady 
warfare. For sport and profit men and boys have been engaged killing off 
these benefactors. Have not many of our American women had a hand 
in this slaughter of the innocents? It is estimated by reliable ornithologists 
that over 5,000,000 of birds are annually required to adorn women's and 
girls' hats! Under the righteous execration of humanitarians D^me Fash- 
ion has lately taken a backward flop, and that fiendish industry is lessening. 
As never before we are beginning to realize the sequences of bird killing. 
Our planted and native forests — what are left — are literally alive with all 
sorts of vermin, and so our fields and gardens. Having thus unbalanced 
the order of nature, from very necessity we resort to the poisons. No dis- 
crimination can be made here. Useful insects that are pollen carriers, fer- 
tilizing the blossoms whence come all future trees and most of our crop 
food, are subject to the peril of our poisons. Cleanse away the vermin, but 
in the name of justice and mercy, breed and save the birds; plant and save 
the forests that we may be blest with birds enough to master the depreda- 
tory insects; next breed and save the bees for honey and fertilization. 
"So long as there are no retreats or building places where the feathered 
friends of ours can rear their offsprings, we need not look for their aid in 
fighting our insect enemies. "j 



67 TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL. 

GAME BIRDS AND ANIMALS. 

Despite the law and the vigilance of our game wardens, our wild ducks 
and geese, our partridges and prairie chickens, our grouse and quails, our 
moose and deer, our otters and beavers, our bears and foxes and other game 
creatures are lessening fast as the years come and go. The wild woods, 
glades, meadows and tree-shadowed waters are their hatching retreats. Is 
the process of extermination traceable alone to shooting them? That is 
legitimate when sought for food. But were the sportsman, or hunter, to 
cease his occupation they will and do recede before the ax and the plow. If 
we would have game birds and animals and fishes for our markets and 
tables and furs for winter garments, there is no other alternative left us at 
this stage of our conquests, than to specially provide for their stay with us by 
foresting the waste places, by conserving our clear, cool waters under forest 
foliation, by propagative methods under the superintendence of the state. 



PROMOTING PRECIPITATION. 

The belter to further comprehend practically the work done by the plant 
kingdom, the laws and conditions governing precipitation are here sum- 
marized: 

Heat expands moisture; cold contracts it. Hot air can contain more 
moisture than cold air. The drier the air, the more rapid is the evaporation. 
The lower the temperature, the greater is the condensation of the air and 
the tightness of its particles, so that only a certain amount of moisture can 
enter. 

The higher the temperature, evolving corresponding expansion, the 
greater is the capacity of a volume of air to entertain the aqueous vapor. 

Other things being equal, evaporation is most vigorous the higher the 
temperature above that of the surface upon which it acts, and the least active 
when the two temperatures are the same. 

In a dry air water is rapidly evaporated, even when the temperature is 
low. 

II the atmosphere already contains much vapor, though the temperature 
may be high, the evaporation is conducted tardily. 

Wind promotes evaporation proportional to its dryness and velocity. 

Evaporation varies according to the extent of the surface exposed. 

Vapors are absorbers and radiators of heat; being afloat in the air, driven 
hither and thither by the wind, they seem to moderate the extreme tempera- 
tures of the country over which they sweep. In this respect their virtue is 



PROMOTING PRECIPITATION. 68 



enhanced proportional to the quantity of vapor exhaled, and this propor- 
tional to the evaporating surfaces. 

Vapors screen the soil from being too rapidly heated by day and too 
rapidly cooled by night. 

Cooling the moist air may produce some form of precipitation. When a 
warm air is so saturated with moisture it can no longer hold the vapors as 
such, the result is rain. 

Owing to shade and the moisture thereby economized, the air over an ex- 
tensive and compact forest is generally cooler in summer than that over the 
open; when therefore, a moisture-laden wind passes over the forest, the 
tendency is to precipitation. It is surer if such wind is colder than the forest. 
If the cold or warm wind is drier than that of the forest, it absorbs the moist- 
ure of the forest and neutralizes the precipitation. 

LAND ACCUMULATION OF VAPORS. 

It is possible so to cover our soil with luxurious vegetation, including dense 
forestry on all the non-agricultural areas, as to have an atmosphere quite as 
humid as the ocean's, or at least fully adequate to our necessities. In the 
aggregate the evaporation from the plant kingdom is considerably greater 
than from the aqueous kingdom. 

SCATTERING THE PRECIPITATION. 

If the meteorological conditions produce precipitation, it may as natural- 
ly fall upon the open as upon the forest. This depends largely upon the 
direction and velocity of the wind. Though the forest may supply the heav- 
iest load of vapors, yet the rain or snow may deposit itself upon some thirs- 
ty plain, and the modest forest gets no credit from the professionals who 
say: "There are no evidences to show that forests cause an increase of 
rainfall!" 



Dev/ is moisture condensed from the air upon surfaces of cool bodies. It 
is proof that the air is more or less charged with vapors. If at night the 
the sky is overcast, the radiant heat from the earth is intercepted by the 
clouds, preventing the cooling down process necessary to the formation of 
dew. It will form on clear, cloudless nights, when the air is sufficiently 
charged with vapors, more especially when a gentle wind brings fresh por- 
tions of atmosphere laden with moisture into contact with the colder bodies 
on the earth's surface. 

It is needless to demonstrate the value of dew upon vegetation. In some 
countries, as in Southwestern Asia, agriculture is almost entirely dependent 
on dew. Every one has noticed how vegetation, wilting under the day's 
sun, is refreshed in the morning when impearled with dew. There is a 
great difference in the amount of woodland and the prairie dews; indeed 
the latter has scarcely any when most needed. "The dew is commonly 



69 TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL. 

abundant near the border of a woodland, where the radiation may be less, 
yet the moisture is more, and the less amount of cooling may be sufficient 
for the precipitation of dew." 

The night may be clear and cool all over the state, and dew may be de- 
posited on open places of the woodlands, but none on the prairies. The 
strong wind that dissipated it in the latter case, is lulled to a gentle breeze 
underthe forest protection, and there the people are specially blest. "When 
the dew is formed," says Prof. Kaemitz, (see Meteorology, Walker's trans- 
lation, p. 107,) "it often disappears very quickly, if the wind rises, or the 
atmosphere is disturbed" — a circumstance most likely to occur on the open 
prairie. 

FROST. 

Frost is the ice of dew and mist, formed by the powerful radiation of heat 
from the substances receiving moisture, depressing the temperature below 
the freezing point. The chief of the United States weather department, as- 
serts: "Anything that will seriously interfere with the rapid loss of heat after 
nightfall will tend to prevent the formation of frost. Moisture does this, and 
if the soil be well charged, it partakes greatly of the stable tempera.ture con 
dition of water, and cools but little, if any , below the temperature of the su- 
perincumbent air, and no frost will occur even though all other conditions 
of clearness, gentle winds and cool air obtain." A forest generally has the 
moisture requisite to neutralize the forming of frost. Its warmth often trans- 
orms the vapors tending to frost into fog-mantles, saving the agricultural 
crops from freezing on the cleared spaces of the woodlands. The forest 
cover, having absorbed much of the day's heat, fhngs it back to the cooling 
ground, preventing the atmospheric temperature immediately around the 
growing plants from reaching the freezing point. If, then, our farmers would 
have refreshing dews, and hold them from changing into hoar frost, fore- 
stalling the loss of millions of dollars to their agricultural districts, let them 
surround their fields with dense clumps of trees. 

HAIL STORMS — PREVENTION OF. 

"Although the exact cause of hail storms is at present unknown," says 
Prof. Houston, in his Outlines of Forestry, p. 151, "'yet the storms never oc- 
cur unless marked differences of temperature exist between neighboring 
portions of the air. The removal of the forest from any considerable sec- 
tion of the country permits such differences of temperature to occur. In 
point of fact it has been noticed in parts of the world from which forests have 
been removed, that the number and severity of hail storms have undoubted- 
ly increased. 

Hail storms seem to move in zones, and are often attended with powerful 
electric discharges. They will turn aside or divide when they come to a 
large wooded area; they will sometimes change to rain over a woodland, 
and again to hail beyond. These phenomena "may be accounted for from 
the fact that the moist air that hangs over a woodland from the evaporation 



PROMOTING PRECIPITATION. 70 

of the leaves, becomes a conductor of electricity and thus lessens the effect 
of storms." By planting long and wide windbreaks in the storm zones to 
divide or weaken their force, we can, to a great extent, save our crops from 
destruction. 

UTILITY OF SNOW. 

It is estimated that the water which falls in snow in the northern states is 
about one-fifth of the precipitation, but the quantity of its crystals and there- 
fore of its moisture is augmented by almost constant congelation of vapor 
impinging upon its surface during the winter season. Thus the snow be* 
comes an accumulating reservoir of water. The snow on the treeless ground 
seldom lies in even depth, but is piled in drifts and blown into valleys, 
largely robbing the soil of its benefits, while in the woods and fields adjacent 
it serves as a furry garment, protecting the roots of slumbering plants and 
prolongs its slow meltmg long after that in the open, because of the tree 
cover and the excess of quantity accumulated in the latter part of winter. 
In the woods the snow presses lightly over the leafy litter, being filled with 
air, protecting against deep freezing and keeping the soil quite open for per- 
colation as it melts, thus feeding our springs and wells. Aside from its pro- 
tection, snow is an effective agent in preparing the soil for plants. It keeps 
the soil well loosened up and evidently produces needful chemical changes 
which our analysis is not yet able to measure; this we know, that it is about 
as good for the field or garden as a manure mulch. It unquestionably 
gathers up nutritive substances afloat in the air. The many colored infus- 
oria living in its feathery flakes, die in the melting process of sun and heat, 
leaving skims of fertility on the soil. As on the farm openings of our wood- 
lands, groups of trees on the prairie will cause the snow to fall on our fields 
where it is wanted. 

SPONGY MOSSES. 

Next to snow for water-holding are the mosses growing under forest cover 
on decayed wood and leaf mould. Prof. A. Kirkwood says: "Mosses of the 
species h^pnuni which grow under the shade of conifers, can absorb up to 
five times their own weight of water, and peat mosses of the germs sphag- 
num up to seven times." Thick mantles of mosses are growing in our 
many cranberry bogs where our annual precipitation stores itself in the 
peaty strata, feeding our principal streams. 

CRANBERRY CULTURE. 

Various speculative plans are projecting to drain all these water con- 
servatories for farms. Why destroy our cranberry facilities, which, under 
proper management, can be made to pay far more than any agricultural 
crop? This valuable berry can be raised there in great abundance if we 
will retain the white cedars and black spruces on these bogs, ample enough 
for shade, keep out fires, and controlt he water, not only for such culture 



71 TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL, 

but for bulkheads to our rivers and lakes. Speaking of the cranberry bogs 
of New Jersey — far less in magnitude than ours — John GifTord, editor of 
"The Forester," says: "A stream of considerable size flows through every 
important bog. It is often necessary to flood these bogs on short notice. 
The water, therefore, must be under perfect control. The water supply 
and the forest cover (especially the cedar swamps) upon which it depends 
for its regularity, are growing in importance to cranberry cultivators. 
Cedar swamps are natural reservoirs of water, producing a natural irriga- 
tion. They are usually located in the region of springs. The bottom of 
the swamp is usually covered with bog mosses and litter. These bcg- 
mosses are noted for their ability to hold," It is very probable that with 
ample forestation with white cedars especially, and surface irrigation, 
many of our prairie sloughs can be utilized for cranberry raising. 



INSECT ENEHIES OF OUR SHADE TREE5. 

"Their name is legion." If let alone, they v/ill ruin every green thing.. 
Having made slaughter houses of our birds, the "plagues of Egypt" are up- 
on us. If your trees are infested with the Fall Web worm that eats the 
limbs where it spreads a web and extends it for new raids, apply the 
torch, careful not to further hurt the tree, and welcome the cuckoos that 
prey upon these implacable marauders. The Tent Caterpillars of the or- 
chard as well as forest, that forage outside of their webs, common with us, 
must be treated in like manner. 

The Green Striped Maple worm is not so numerous as the preceding, but 
it makes mischief with the soft maples. The farmer or sportsman 'who 
shoots the robins invites the ravages of this pest. It is not known to be in 
our state now to any extent, but we shall no doubt see this worm, creeping 
in upon us from other states just south of Minnesota. 

Are there caterpillars on your walnuts, forming colonies on the under sides 
of the leaves? Pick such leaves off early as possible and burn them. Ap- 
ply arsenical spray on the trees. 

The leaves of our elms are frequently eaten by a beetle. Spray them with 
Paris green or London purple. 

"No other family of beetles is so destructive to trees," says Prof. Lugger, 
"as the one composed of bark beetles, and consequently they are feared 
whenever forests are taken care of or where new ones are planted" They 
burrow between the bark and wood, and will kill the limbs, if not the tree. 
To keep them in check, he recommends removing all wood from the forests 
"that has been cut a short time before the swarming period of such beetles. 
This is very important. A second remedy and one that has to be carried 



INSECT ENEMIES OF OUR SHADE TREES. 72 

out at the same time as the first one, is to prepare some trees as traps for 
the insects flying about to deposit their eggs. This will prevent them from 
depositing their eggs upon more valuable trees. Removal of freshly 
cut trees from the forests without preparing traps is worse than useless, as it 
is rather an invitation for the insects to increase upon good timber trees. 
Since we know that bark beetles prefer recently injured trees, we have to 
prepare a number of such trees as traps. In the bark of such trap trees 
the majority of the flying females will deposit their eggs. By removing the 
bark of such trap-trees after five or six weeks, and by burning the bark, an 
immense number of the immature bark-beetles will be destroyed." An 
elaborate and valuable treatise by Prof. Lugger on this beetle, from which 
the above extract is taken, is found in the tenth edition of the Tree Planter's 
Manual. 

Sometimes in early June the air is filled with May Beetles, visiting us at 
night, and preying upon our plants while we sleep. They hatch from the 
soil. But for skunks, gophers, moles, shrews and mice that relish the grubs, 
there would be but little hope for crops or trees. Set fires for the beetles to 
fly into, jar the trees where they light, gather them in sheets and burn them. 
Spray the foliage with Paris green. Let your domestic fowls scratch for 
them in the garden; they will eat them greedily. "Hogs will search indus- 
triously for them by rooting over the groundwherethey occur in abundance." 
Our white.winged gulls and other birds will oiten be seen in flocks, follow- 
ing the plow as it turns these grubs in sight. Killing such birds is unpar- 
donable. The importance of destroying the grubs will be appreciated by the 
life history of the beetles as summed up by Prof. Lawerence Bruner, Ento- 
mologist of the University of Nebraska: "Shortly after bearing, the female 
beetles creep into the earth, especially wherever the soil is rough and loose 
and more or less covered by vegetation, and after depositing their eggs to 
the number of forty or fifty, die. These eggs hatch in from five to six weeks 
and produce grubs that feed upon the roots of various plants (our young 
forest trees with the rest. — Ed.) and grow slowly for upwards of two years 
when they change to the pupa stage within cells in the ground which they 
construct for themselves. Within these cells the beetles remain durino- the 
remainder of the summer, fall and winter into the following spring, when 
they crawl to the surface and are ready to take an active part in the destruc- 
tion of all kinds of tree foliage and to prepare for the propagation of 
future generations." , 

Our ornamental trees are meeting the fate of our forest trees — mfested and 
seriously injured by wood borers of various sorts. Every tree has its para- 
sites, that has to be treated according to its nature and habit. While in 
their moth stage, they can be largely diminished by building fires at night and 
spraying the plants with poisons. While in their worm stage, burrowino- 

in the trees, they can be killed by injecting some alkaline element 

bisulphide of carbon is effectual — into their burrows, afterwards closing up 
the openings. Smearing the bark v/ith tar, washing the trunk with strong 
soap suds or white washing with lime, is a good preventive of the attack of 



73 



TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL. 



such moms or borers. The woodpeckers will also help us in the destruc- 
tion of the borers. The man or boy who wantonly shoots one of these birds 
should be imprisoned. 

Leaf beetles prey upon our cottonwoods and willows; dose them with 
poisonous spray. Serve the saw-flies, the gall-makers, the tree hoppers, 
the plant lice with what they deserve. 

My counsel is that whenever your trees are preyed upon by any kind of 
vermin, immediately consult Prof. Otto Lugger, our State Entomologist, and 
follow his instructions to the letter. The business in hand is to rid ourselves 
as much as possible of insect pests that are destroying our forestal and agri- 
cultural crops. 

FRIENDLY INSECTS. 

Professor Panton, of the Ontario Ag'l College, says Public Opinion, gives 
a list of a few insects which are our friends: Syrphus fly, trachina fly, tiger 
beetles, lady-birds, reduvius, soldier bugs, lace-winged flies, wasps, cuckoo- 
flies, and ichneumons. 

These insects are said to be of great importance in keeping the mischiev- 
ous species under, the ichneumons being especially good at the business 
They prey on certain grubs by depositing eggs on their living bodies. 
When these eggs hatch, the woims feed upon their host till the latter can 
stand the strain no longer and forthwith dies. About this time the ichneu- 
mons are ready to fly as perfect insects. It is no uncommon thing to find 
upon a tomato or tobacco plant one of the large green worms v/hich infest 
these plants, with a dozen or so small whitish thorns sticking into its hide. 
These are the ichneumon eggs which eventually kill the worm. Lady, 
birds feed upon plant lice; the tiger beetle will eat almost anything in the 
insect line." 

KEROSENE EMULSION. 

One of the most useful of the insecticides, destructive to plant parasites, is 
the kerosene emulsion: Dissolve one-half pound of hard soap (best whale 
soap) in four pints of water by boiling. When the soap is all dissolved, re- 
move from the fire and add eight pints of kerosene, and agitate the whole 
briskly until a permanent mixture is obtained. This is best done by using 
a force pump and pumping the mixture with force back into the vessel that 
contains it. The emulsion may be diluted to the desired strength and used 
at once, or may be used from when needed. The strength ordinarily used 
is prepared by diluting one part of the emulsion in ten or twelve parts of 
water, which makes the kerosene one-twentieth part of the whole. 



NATURE'S MANUFACTORIES. 74 



NATURE'S HANUFACTORIES. 

WATER-MAKING. 

"With an electric current, burn two volumes of hydrogen with one volume 
of oxygen; the result is water. What is this art but copying nature's 
synthesis? The decay of stones and other things by oxidation, or rusting, 
is a slow, burning method of water-making. By an analagous process a 
portion of our digested food is converted into water. We inhale air, or 
twenty one volumes of oxygen with seventy nine volumes of nitrogen; 
by animal chemistry we appropriate what will make cell life, and exhale 
what is not wanted — the refuse of the compound, a watery mixture of 
carbonic acid gas and other gases. If this debased mixture is not some 
way separated and distilled, nothing animal can live in the sufficating air. 
The plants are equal to the emergency. With imperceptible force from the 
electric sun rays the plants, leaves especially, divorce the adulterated com- 
pounds, appropriating the carbon and freeing the oxygen for the animal 
kingdom. Thus one department of life lives upon what the other rejects. 
When hydrogen and oxygen are freed from other alliances, they unite in 
fixed proportions and form water. 

AIR-MAKING. 

By this electro-chemical art of nature the air is fitted for us to breathe. 
F. H. Hahn, in Forest Leaves, maintains "that the atmosphere is entirely a 
product of vegetation; that nature has no means of composing the air," 
except by the interchanges just described; "that it is not simply a chemical 
but a vital product; that its production, like its preservation, depends 
entirely on plants, and would be impossible without their agency. But as 
all plants united are not equal in bulk to the trees, it may be truly averred 
that any series of operations or accidents that should deprive the earth 
entirely of its forests, would leave the atmosphere without a source for its 
regeneration." 

FOOD-MAKING. 

When elements destructive to us in their crude states are vegetized they 
are food for us. What is it but a regenerating divinity in nature that, from 
filthy and disgusting offal, can and does transform it into garden vegetables 
and fruits? Prof. Remsen, speaking of nitrogen as an essential constituent 
of organic life, says: "The animals get their nitrogenous compounds from 
the plants, and the plants get theirs, partly at least, from the soil." 



75 TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL. 



LIFE HISTORY OF RIVERS. 

About seven thousand feet above the sea level is the average height of 
all the lands on the earth. Minnesota has nearly reached this minimum, 
for her average elevation is about 1275 feet. All heights are simultaneously 
undergoing erosion under forces in action competent to destroy the habitable 
portions of the globe in a single age of historic geology, were it not for the 
counter-balancing forces of the earth's internal heat, whose dynamics lift up 
the continents about as fast as the waters and winds level them down. 
Hence humanity need borrow no fear of losing its foothold. Prof. L. E. 
Hicks, geologist of Nebraska, aptly says: "Young rivers have steep 
gradients, swift currents, narrow valleys, sharp and high bluffs and few 
tributaries, while large blocks of the interfluvial surface are left undrained. 
Mature rivers have moderate fall and velocity , broad valleys, gentle slopes 
covered with vegetation, and numerous tributaries covering the whole 
surface of land with an intricate net work. Old rivers have a slight fall, 
sluggish current, and low banks." 

According to this, what remains to us of the rivers and lakes of 
Minnesota have already reached their maturity and are on the race to 
perish and disappear. The ancient mountains; dotting what is now our 
Minnesota, have by ages of erosion dvf indled to hill ranges, constituting a 
divide in the north part of the state, separatmg the waters of the north, the 
east and the south, whose general elevation above the sea is only about 
seventeen hundred feet. 

FACTORS OF RIVER RECESSION. 

The leveling down process of ihe centuries have prepared the way for 
the agricultural age in which we live. In entering upon our providential 
heritage, how few of us have bestowed a thought upon the sequences of our 
all-conquering energy and push. Evefy ax hewing down the trees» 
every plow subduing the sods, every plunge into the bowels of our hill- 
mines for iron and gold, necessary as it all may be to our civilization, has 
contributed to the recession of our water systems and thence modificatioii 
of climate. 

The two primal factors working this change are lumbering and farming. 
Ripping down the leafy roof of our native forests and thence drying and 
burning the leafy floor, have suddenly augmented the evaporation, exposed 
the river feeders to burning suns, lessening their general flow. The log- 
driving in the spring, when the ground is water-soaked and soft, has torn 
into the yielding banks, filled up the rivers with the debris, making them 
more shallow and wide, lessening velocity and augmentmg evaporation. 

Doubtless our farming operations have contributed more to the recession 
than our lumbering. Despite the extravagant cutting and needless fires. 



LIFE HISTORY OF RIVERS. 76 

young trees, springing up on the denuded districts, have got some foothold, 
retaining a measure of shade for our waters yet remaining. 

LOWERING THE WATER LEVEL. 

We must take into our calculation this law, that water seeks a general 
level; that sinking it in the forest by cutting, sinks it on the open prairie, and 
vice versa. No mathematical measurement is necessary to demonstrate 
that the general water level is lower down. Almost everywhere public at- 
tention is centered upon methods by which to find and lift up the stored 
waters beneath our tread to supply our thirsty plants. 

Opening the soil opens capillary mouths; raising grains and vegetables 
thereon — our beautiful necessity — absorbs much of the moisture from the 
clouds. Fast, then, as our agriculture advances recede our rivers and lakes, 
for there is left precious little surplus to feed their sources. The question 
to solve is, how shall we balance our agriculture with our water systems so 
that neither shall suffer? 

ROLLING LANDS. 

The soil of our rolling prairies is generally rich and friable, but how often 
little rills, formed by showers and sudden melting'ofspringsnows, plov/down 
deep channels, wasting the best soil we have and greatly marring the sym- 
metry of the farm. It is estimated that not less than ten percent of our 
soil is carried away by rills, streams and floods. 

HIGHLAND RAVINES. 

Wherever a mountain or hill slope has been stripped of wood, it is ploughed 
by rills into ravines which collect the precipitation leaving barren the ac- 
clivities, and piling the chaotic debris in the valley below. The same mis- 
chief often occurs on the sandy descents of pine forests cleared for lumber. 
Lyell, the geologist, calls attention to places in Georgia and Alabama — and 
the same conditions are found in other states — "where the cutting down of 
the trees, which had prevented the rain from collecting into torrents and 
running off in sudden land floods, has given rise to ravines from seventy 
to eighty feet deep." 

The deforested bluffs along sections of the Mississippi and its tributaries, 
are more or less rifted by the same agency. Down these shaggy descents 
sweeps the prairie soil in their vicinity, robbing such lands of their wanted 
fertiUty and leaving the higher places sterile as the desert, 

HASTENING THE RUIN. 

Inconsiderate farmers and herders burn ever such localities, to secure 
green grass for their stock, thus destroying whatever mulch nature has been 
accumulating there, making the waste worse and worse year after year, till 
at length not a thread of vegetation can grow there. How thoughtlessly 
men hasten the ruin they seek to avert! If any grass grows there after the 



77 TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL. 



burning, the stock, sheep especially, tear out the very roots, and even dig 
up what little surface soil remains, in which condition it is easily washed 
down by the first rain. 

LAND-SLIDES. 

In his admirable report upon forestry, 1893, Prof. A. Kirkwood, of the 
Department of Crown Lands, Canada, after giving a fearfully graphic deff- 
cription of land-slides arising from deforestation well says: "When the hill- 
sides are covered with trees, the snow which has accumulated during the 
winter months, disappears gradually under the influence of the milder tem • 
perature which accompanies the advancing spring; but when the trees have 
been removed, and the masses of snow are consequently exposed *to the 
full force of the sun's rays, they melt rapidly and produce results upon the 
mountain sides similar to those which follow the occurrence of heavy storms 
of rain." Thus it is that a want of well-rooted forests on our highlands and 
cultivated prairies not only gives occasion for an alarming waste of soil, 
but of water absolutely needed to ensure good crops. 



SOLVING THE PROBLEM OF FOREST 
REFUSE. 

When a bill for the suppression of forest fires was first drawn up for legis- 
lative action in Minnesota, it was proposed to require every lumberman to 
safely dispose of the refuse from his tree cutting, but this was, on discussion, 
deemed impractical, and abandoned. Tne refuse therefore remains in 
the woods as before, menacing the lives and property of the residents, on 
account of their combustible condition in the dry season. It is question- 
able whether, with all the prudent caution which the forest commissioner 
may use to forestall forest fires, our woodlands are safe. Alarm will 
ever obtain so long as the refuse is not some way removed. It is obvious 
that lumbermen themselves, from business necessity for profit, will have to 
solve the problem, and thus become practical friends of forestry, It is 
already discovered and demonstrated on business lines that wood alcohol 
for chemical and other arts — not for beverages — is profitably manufactured 
from such refuse, more especially when it is beginning to decay. A super- 
ior grade of paper has been manufactured from the leaves before they have 
decayed. Now that wood fuel augments in price from year to year, show- 
ing that the raw material is rapidly lessening, it will soon be found that the 
chips and every available limb, down to an inch or even less, may be pro- 
fitably gathered and shipped to the markets. 

As our saw mill machinery becomes more and more multiform, requiring 
corresponding power or heat to run it, it will be, and in fact already is, found 



SOLVING THE PROBLEM OF FOREST REFUSE. 78 

that the saw dust and other refuse, where the best economy is used, are not 
sufficient supply for consumption, and limbs and tops for fuel are often 
hauled and burned. Such clearings are to be obtained in the near future, 
fast as the manufacturing mills are erected and operated in the lumber re- 
gions. Pretty soon not a slab will be wasted. Every piece of wood down 
to an inch block, or thinned for veneer purposes, or a little thread-spool, 
match, or a tooth-pick, will be utilized. Wood manufacturers, as in all other 
industries these days, have to calculate as to close margins, and know full 
well that there is practical economy in getting the most value possible into 
the least possible bulk; hence they are constructing mills at primary points, 
and working everything they can into finished products nearly, if not final- 
ly, ready for actual use; saving in cost of transportation, in cost of fuel, in 
cost arising from failing to float down the logs, when needed, to the city 
mills, where they have "monopolized the trade." 

Thus it will prove by experimentation, that in order to keep the lumber 
business profitable, the whole method must be revolutionized; the most 
rigid economy instituted, allowing no waste of any description, and no re- 
fuse left for forest fires. Next will come up the great central question which 
lumbermen will have to meet from very necessity, what shall be done prac- 
tically to save and grow trees for the perpetuity of the industry and the 
general benefits of the people at large ? 



HYGIENIC INFLUENCES OF F0RE5TS. 

Prof. Cleveland Abbe, of the weather bureau, Washington, D. C, sum- 
marizing facts relative to malarial fevers, as given by Dr. H. M. Clark, of 
Amritsar, India, says in his excellent paper read at the World's Fair: 

"The forests act to diminish malaria; 

1. By shading the soil so that its coolness prevents the growth of mala- 
ria bacteria. 

2. By diminishing the wind at the level of the soil and thus preventing 
the spread of bacteria. 

3. By sifting the wind through their leaves the trees catch the germs or 
delay their progress and give them time to settle to the ground, thereby 
protecting localities to the leeward. 

4. Facilitating the formation of fog at night-time, by which the germs 
are carried down to the ground and the air purified." 

"When a current of bad air," says M. Becquerel, "laden with pestilentiaj 
miasms penetrates a forest of a certain extent, it is wholly deprived of these 
properties. The effect of this is observed in the Pontine marshes, in which 
a belt of trees preserves all there is behind them, while the uncovered part 
is exposed to fevers. The trees, therefore, tame the infected air and deprive 
it of its miasms." 



79 TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL. 

The observations of Ebermayer, a German authority, are, that "so far no 
pathogenic microbes have ever been found in forest soil; hence this soil may 
be called hygienically pure." 

Biederman's Ceneralblatt (Germanic) affirms that "the innumerable 
leaves and branches of a forest in a manner filter the air, and retain the 
micro-organisms which float in the lower grounds; besides woods cut the 
cold and dry winds so dangerous to the organs of respiration, and render 
the temperature more uniform." 

Dr. John H. Ranch, in his Report of Public Parks, with special reference 
to the city of Chicago, "gives a series of facts, clearly provmg that the in- 
fection and diffusion of malaria or noxious emanations are arrested by 
trees, whose structure and canopy of foliage act in, a three-fold capacity — 
first, as a barrier to break the flow, second, as an absorbent of these ema- 
nations, and third, as eliminators of oxygen." 

Says Elizur Wright: "Ask your botanists, your chemists, all the people 
who have been studying the nature of things since Joseph Priestly discover- 
ed what air is more than a hundred years ago, and see if they will not tell 
you that animals could never have lived and cannot live long on this earth 
without forestry to purify the air. You may ask the historians, too, if great 
nations have not decayed and become puny and degraded because they 
made broad and fertile valleys bare of forests." 

Another serious fact should be considered, that when rivers sink lower 
and lower in a dry hot season — traceable to deforestation at the water-sheds 
— they float to the towns and cities through which they flow, the garbage of 
the country that is full of wrigglers, microbes and poisons that also contam- 
inate our wells. Innumerable sicknesses and deaths follow. The antidote 
for these sorrows is forestry. Is it not, then, the duty of the state to enforce 
its development proportional to the hygienic necessities of the people? 



ESTABLISHED FOREST RESERVES. 

Of the timber reservations, we now have the following: In Colorado, that 
of the White River Plateau, of more than a million acres; the Pike's Peak, 
of nearly two hundred thousand acres; the Plum Creek, of about the same 
dimensions; the South Platte, of more than half a million acres; and of the 
Baltimore Mesa, of over eight hundred thousand acres. In Oregon, that of 
Bull Run, of Cascade Range, of about four million and a half acres; and of 
Ashland, embracing nearly nineteen thousand acres. In Wyoming, the ad- 
diton to the Yellowstone National Park, of nearly a million and a quarter acres. 
In California, the San Gabriel, of over half a million acres; that of the Sierra, 
of over four million acres; of the San Bernardino, of over seven hundred 
thousand acres; and that of the Trabuco Canyon, of about fifty thousand 



ESTABLISHED FOREST RESERVES. 80 

acres. In Washington, that of the Pacific, of nearly a million acre:, i 1 
Arizona, that of the Grand Canyon of the Colorada, of over one million, eight 
hundred thousand acres. In Alaska, that of the Afognak Forest, and Fish 
Culture Reservation, embracing the v>rhole island and circumjacent rocks, 
and waters. These reservations embrace in all over seventeen million acres, 
besides 3,274,340 acres comprising the four national parks. These areas 
chiefly include water shed regions, and protection of the headwaters of 
streams — a measure of high importance, Vi^hich Minnesota should consider. 



PUBLIC PARKS, 

But for public parks the residents of our large cities would verily suffo- 
cate. The authorities are generally alive to their hygienic necessity. But 
why is the park system so neglected in the country places? Plenty of 
room is there at slight cost. We of the country may not be able to have the 
social privileges of the city, but we can, if we will, compensate for such lack 
by even excelling the city in healthfulness and beauty. 

Our last legislature did itself credit by locating one, conjointly with Wis- 
consin, at Taylor Falls. Itaska park is another, donated by the national 
government, located at the headwaters of the Mississippi. It is neglected- 
If enlarged and properly cared for, it would be one of the most health-invig- 
orating and water-conserving parks in the northwest. 

RESERVES AND PARKS. 

At the annual meeting of the American Forestry Association, held last 
Sept., at Springfield, Mass., a resolution was passed, congratulating Minne- 
sota in having a forest fire warden system to protect forest property and life, 
and by another, apphcable to all the country: "That the policy of establish- 
ing forest reservations and parks is to be encouraged, and for this purpose it 
is recommended that timber lands offered for sale for non-payment of taxes 
be acquired by the State and held to form the nucleus of stale forest reser. 
vations." 

What better use could be made of our abandoned and worthless lands 
forfeited by tax sales, than to have them permanently held by the state and 
devoted to the purposes of the production of trees, for which they are 
admirably adapted? 



A new way of seasoning lumber is being developed, and bids fair to be- 
come an important industry. By the new process the sap is sweated out of 
the boards by being placed in a green state in steam chambers for twelve 
days, then it is put into the drving chamber for two or three days, and by a 
chemical application the wood is stained throughout a rich walnut color. 



8i TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL. 



TREE BOUNTIES. 

The tree bounty act of 1873, requiring a tax levy of one-tenth of a mill 
upon the taxable property of the state was repealed by our last legislature, 
but the amended clause of said act, limiting the amount to ^20,000 annual- 
ly, was retained, payable from the general revenue. The aggregate of tree 
planting under the operation of the act, dating from its inception, is estimated 
at 100,000 acres of substantial trees. 

To be entitled to bounty, applicants must show that trees were originally 
planted not more than eight feet apart each way, and were kept in a thrifty, 
growing condition, and were maintained at such distances by replanting 
each year all that may have died during the year. Applications should be 
made July i to 15 to state auditor lor blanks. The assessor records your 
answers to the questions on the blank. In all cases two freeholders, resi- 
dents of your town, must attest your statement, together with the assessor's 
acknowledgmentof its validity. It must then go to the county auditor for 
attestation, and when it reaches the state auditor, and all is right, you get 
your bounty at $2.50 per acre. 

As not half of the counties draw bounties, and as the saving of our native 
trees, partially grown to timber conditions, are considered valuable as our 
planted ones — more so, in fact — it has been suggested by lumbermen and 
others, that the bounty act be so amended, that whoever shall plant or save 
a special class of trees, say pines, oaks, ashes, maples, etc., on so many 
acres, averaging not less than eight feet apart and shall preserve them from 
the ravages of fires and stock, for a term, say of ten years, shall be entitled 
to a bounty from the state of $2.00 per acre. This certainly is just and 
equal, and evidently would contribute to the rescue of much of our native 
forests from the prevaiUng vandalism and abandonment. 

The objection often raised, that the state should not pay a man for improv- 
ing his own premises, would be logical, were the improvement limited to the 
man's private benefit. Raising trees bears no analogy to raising a crop of 
potatoes or corn, They are not annuals; they live after we are gone. They 
are bequests to our successors. They are factors of climate, of general agri- 
culture, of the people's healthfulness. As rivers and lakes are public bene- 
factions, so are forests. The framers of the bounty act viewed the matter 
in this light, and our legislatures have ever since builded upon this princi- 
ple. Evidently the bounty law is weak in that it does not recognize the 
inherent right of the state to supervise the trees it has paid for. While such 
belong with the farms where they are growing, and are as inalienable as the 
soil, in justice to itself, the state should step in and declare that they shall 
not be neglected nor removed; that the cutting shall be only by government 
al permit to the proprietor of the farm, to the end that such forests shall be 
preserved for climatic uses and rural beauty. 



ARBOR DAY HISTORY. Sz 



ARBOR DAY HISTORY. 

About thirty years ago this editorial appeared in a New England paper: 
"Let every state have a general holiday to be devoted to tree planting. 
Close the schools and let the children turn out and take part in the proceed- 
ings." Other papers copied; the suggestion was discussed and approved. 
It germinated in the public mind. In 1872 Hon J. Sterling Morton, the 
recognized author of Arbor Day, now secretary of the United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, then Governor of Nebraska, introduced a resolution at a 
meeting of the State Board of Agriculture, which was unanimously adopted, 
setting apart the loth day of April as a day consecrated to tree planting, and 
offering a special premium for the proper planting of the largest number of 
trees. It is stated that on that day over a million trees were planted in 
Nebraska. In 1874 his successor. Gov. Robert W. Furnas, issued the first 
Arbor, Day Proclamation which was generally observed, and the next year 
the legislature of that state made it a legal holiday in Nebraska. 

Arbor Day in Minnesota was inaugurated by the State Forestry Associa* 
tion the year of its organization. May i, 1876, under the leadership of its secre- 
tary, Leonard B. Hodges. Great interest was evoked. Over a million trees 
were planted for prizes alone. Hon. L, F. Hubbard, in 1885, was the first 
governor of our state who proclaimed Arbor Day under the school regime* 
followed in the succeeding administrations by Governors McGill, Merriam, 
Nelson andClough, co-operated with by Prof. Keihie, superintendent of pub- 
lic instruction; and equally earnest by his successor, Prof. W. W. Pender- 
gast, and county superintendents and principals of schools generally through- 
out the state. Since these initial steps Arbor Day is annually observed in 
nearly all the states and territories, Canada, Europe and Australia, New Zea- 
land, South Africa, and will soon be world-wide. 

OBJECT OF ARBOR DAY. 

Some professional forester pertinently asks: "What is the object of Arbor 
day? To plant shade trees and have a good time? Oh, no! Although the 
setting of a tree is useful and pleasurable, although the festivities attending 
it are pleasurable and useful in impressing the mind with the memory of the 
occasion, the deeper object of Arbor day is to so imbue the coming genera- 
tions with a love of tree growth and tree planting that out of a nation of 
woodchoppers, there may arise a nation of tree planters and tree foresters." 

"What is needed is to embody the beautiful sentiment of the Day in prac- 
tical form for discipline of foresight, in stability of purposes and character. 
Enthusiasm should be aroused, but too of en it ends in gush and display. 
Generally the after care is not provided for. ""What is everybody's business 
is nobody's business." Let us not vie with each other m planting many trees 
but in planting what will be rightly managed to live, even after we are gone 
to our reward. Let the instructive lessons be plans for improvement. The 



83 TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL. 

State Superintendent cf Tnigation and Forestry of North Dakota sensibly vrg» 
ep that, in addition to the regular exercises, "there should be thought bestow- 
ed upon and action taken to secure, if possible, larger grounds for the school 
hoiises, the proper fencing of the premises and a systematic plan for the 
adornment of the same, involving the planting and cultivation of trees, 
shrubs, vines and flowers; pleasant walks, with a well of pure water, to- 
gether vv'ith miniature lakes etc., to the end that ultimately the sacred spot, dear 
to every lad and maiden, may be converted into the semblance of an at 
tractive paik, thus producing those environments and influences that con- 
duce to the haimonious development of the highest and noblest attributes 
of mind and spirit." 

ARBOR DAY IN THE WOODLANDS. 

Why not celebrate the saving as well as the planting of trees? The for 
mer are ahead in growth; are they not equally worthy of our attention? Are 
we not doing excellent v/ovkif each of us saves a tree each year? and should 
we not accommodate onr-elves"a little more to the trees which nature has 
planted for us? Yes, plant them on the farms, along the highways, in the 
cc.ueteries and parks and lav/ns, and around the school-houses and churches 
dedicated to the deities of Use and Beauty. But we must do something to 
eradicate the vandal disposition and habit of indifferent treatment to our 
native trees, of cutting down wild cherry, plum, butternut and other forest 
trees simply for their fruit, caring nothing for their future needs. The ob- 
servance of the Day by the woodland schools with speech and song and his- 
toric lessons associated with venerable trees, with the replanting in the 
cides and villages and at the rural homes of the firs and maples and the 
acorns of the oaks, would surely influence the youth to be the guards of our 
forests and the patriots of our country. 

APPROPRIATE PLANS. 

It would be a good idea to have a registiy of the trees planted, also a 
draft of them preserved each year in the archives of the school library. And 
what has been accomplished should be reported to the secretary of the State 
Forestry Association to be incorporated in his annual report, 

INDOOR EXERCISES. 

Prof. N. H. Egleston, of the Forestry Division of Agriculture at Wash- 
ington, D. C, who has competently given the observance of Arbor Day spec 
ial attention, suggests a program like this: The reading of the laws of the 
state relating to Arbor Day; reading of letters from forestry friends liv- 
ing abroad; brief addresses and essays on the subject of forestry; forestal quo- 
tations from eminent authors, both prose and poetic; responsive recitations; 
songs of the trees and flowers and birds; voting for the tree or flower that 
shall be the emblem of the school for the year; "to faciliate the voting, a 
blackboard facing the pupils during the exercises with a few drawings of 
traes and flowers, each with a characteristic attribute printed beneath it. 
The voting may be expeditiously performed by pointing to the drawings." 



FORESTRY IN OUR PUBLIC 
SCHOOLS. 



There is so much to do in our educational enterpriser it may seem a 
mental tyranny to even suggest another study. If, howev ■, forestry can be 
made a restful exercise, lighting up the technical task, i oking physical 
vigor for mental application, it should command our cand.d consideration. 

Can you think of a primary science that does not include the plant king- 
dom? The superficies, solidities, lines, curves, forms and heights of trees 
teach us mathematics. The functions of vegetable tissue, of barks, roots 
and leaves teach us chromatics. Their moisture-breathing organs and 
temperamental influences teach us meteorology. Their kindred relations 
to ancient plants, as discovered in fossil remains, teach us paleontology. 
Their crystals, found in rocks and coals, teach us geology. The great 
forests, where our progenitors lived, battled and died, teach us history. The 
oaks of ihe Druids, the banians of Ceylon, the palms of Palestine teach us 
religion in "God's first temples." So in improvements, in landscape 
gardening, in good roads, in lawn ornamentation, in farm culture, trees are 
central figures. No scholarship is complete without a knowledge of their 
uses. How, then, can forestry be consistently left out of our educational 
curriculum? 

USES OF FORESTS. 

Of the practical uses of forests in the economy of nature and art, this is a 
summary: 

They furnish fuel and lumber for our homes, and for improvements in in- 
dustry and travel. 

By their life and decay they are soil-makers. 

They are the breeding-places of our birds and^game animals, and in their 
cleaner and cooler waters we are supplied with the best qualities p{ fish. 

By their roots and leaves they extract nitrogen from the ground and at- 
mosphere, necessary to agricultural growth. 

By their roots they penetrate into the wet chambers below the soil, sip up 
the water, serving as capillaries of moisture for the plants. 



85 TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL" 

By t heir leaves, under the electric action of the sun, they separate the 
oxygen from the carbonic acid gas, appropriating the excess of carbon for 
the f^rowth of vegetation, giving the now revitalized oxygen lo the animal 
kingdom, thus balancing the life departments ot creation, each Uving upon 
what the other rejects. 

By their shade under fohage in the air and dead leaves on the ground, 
they economize the life-evolving processes of evaporation and transpira- 
tion. 

By their chemical action, together with shade, they cool the air in sum- 
mer, and, from their stored heat in woody tissue, warm the air in winter. 

By their tree trunks and roots and entanglement of sticks and leaves, 
they dam back the spring waters, largely preventing the damages of floods. 

By these checks under shade they hold in tact the lake and river auricles 
and ventricles of our country, saving water for the farm, and city. 

By their tall, living walls, they intercept the wind and hail, mitigate the 
extremes of heat and cold, sift and refine the air we breathe, making for us 
a healthy climate to live in. 

THE TREE SPOILER., 

As forestry is a factor correlated witn our practical sciences and arts, con- 
cerned in the very issues of life, we cannot, if we would, separate it from 
our education. Forestry in our schools— right here centers our hope. It 
is useless to expect the tree spoiler will espouse this cause. He is too busy 
using up the forests to give it any attention. What cares he about others' 
equal claim to the bounties of Providence? What thought will he bestow 
upon the injury he is doing to the climate, ripping up even the water 
systems of this country, provoking the desert? If we rely on him to 
promote forestry, we are guilty of casting pearls before swine that turn and 
rend us. 

LEGISLATIVE ACTION. 

Nor is it wise to wait the action of legislature. It comes not unless the 
people demand it. Only when we have popularized forestry, by judicious 
agitation, can we have a governmental management of it, republican in 
structure and therefore broader than the European. To this end we appeal 
to our educational professors for co-operation. But the Minnesota legisla- 
ture, conservative as it is and should be, has always committed itself 
initially to the great work, and is in the van of state forestry. The fact that 
it gives a liberal bounty for tree planting on the open prairie, and support 
for the State Forestry Association, and forestry instruction in the horticul- 
tural department of our Agricultural School at St. Anthony Park, and has 
at last instituted a fire warden system to prevent and smother forest fires, 
and the fact that the governor annually proclaims the observance of Arbor 
Day, is proof positive that forestrv is coming to the front educationally and 
practically, and in the near future will loom up in grand proportions as the 
most useful feature of the state. 



FORESTRY IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 86 



FIXING THE ATTENTION. 

If it be asked how can forestry be taught in our schools, and not infringe 
upon other studies, as required by law,* I answer, undertake it for 
the present, mainly without text books in the hands of the pupils. 
As is well known, the prerequisite to success in teaching is ability 
to fix the attention. This is secured when the teacher feels an 
interest in the subject, and thinks with the pupils. If the teacher 
takes no stock in trees, or concludes other subjects are more important in 
scholarship, of course it is useless to undertake it. It may be safe to say 
that a teacher who does not love the trees is not a lover of children, and in 
that case will not succeed in the profession. 

Have we any teachers in Minnesota, so inattentive and indifferent to 
forestry, they cannot distinguish one tree from another, and yet may have 
lived where a variety of them grow? 

AN UNSCHOLARLY YET PRACTICAL FORESTER. 

During one of my jaunts into the woodlands of our state, I accosted a 
young man going from the village school to his home, inquiring, "what 
tree is that?" pointing to a bur oak by the road side, just to call him out. 
He looked at it, probably more attentively than he ever did before, answer- 
ing, "I do not know." He had passed that tree six or eight times a day, and 
yet did not know even its nam.e. From his age and manner I calculated he 
was a pupil in the high school department. The natural inference I drew 
was, that the youngster's attention had not been directed educationally to 
trees, though literally surrounded by them, and that too, in a lumber 
county, and that the responsibility rested upon the teacher. In that village 
I had business with a farmer whose conversation proved that in his young 
days he had but little schooling, but for all that was well informed in practi- 
cal matters. He had gathered stones of various constituency and color, not 
knowing their genera or species, piled them up tastily in his'rustic lawn, and 
trailed some wild vines over them. He had a little cabinet of mineral and 
wood specimens in his humble parlor, not one of which was labelled. He had 
evergreens and fruit trees all around and v/ithin his premises. In his back 
yard and shop were heaps of various species of wood which he had gleaned 
from the native forests. Going with him among the timber trees, I learned 
important facts, not found in the books, how to determine the condition of 
the soil from the external appearance of the trees, how from the limbs or 
bark, whether they were shaky or hollow-hearted, how to cut them to best 
advantage, how to load them, how to saw them economically. I met this 
man at the World's Fair, and noticed how much more observing he was 
*The attention of educators and all concerned is respectfully called to the 
"Sylvaton System, " organized in North Dakota, under the leadership of Hon. 
W. W. Barrett, Superintendent of Forestry and Irrigation, the objects of which 
are to pave the way on the lines herein defined. The constitution of this useful 
society is embodied in the 10th edition of the Tree Planter's Manual, an elabor- 
ate work on practical forestry, a copy of which can be procured of the writer. 



87 TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL. 



than others finer dressed and disp )sed to call him "a crank from the back- 
woods of Minnesota." Attentive observation and diligent inquiry had 
evoked in the mind of that farmer, though unskilled in technics, a genuine 
scholarship, far ahead of those who pride themselves in book kno^vledge 
without its practical application. Do not understand me as discouruiiig the 
value of the text book. It aids in fixing the attention and in finding new 
and ever engaging sciences and arts. In this analytic investigation nothing 
so enchants the mind as the plant kingdom. The technical with the prac- 
tical — this is the true line of scholarship. When skilled in adaptable tact, 
the teacher can instruct incidentally, and thus throw new light upon a 
subject that may at first seem foreign to forestry. 

DUPLICATING INSTRUCTION. 

Suppose, for instance, a recitation in physiology is called. As is the com- 
mon practice of all adept teachers, things in lesson are compared with 
analogous things, thus duplicating instruction for a more rapid and observa- 
tional progress. In drawing out thought upon the bony framework of the 
human body, mentioning the constituencies, forms and joints, by way of 
illustration, structures in a tree can be cited; its silex, its carbonate element, 
its waxy hardness, as in a Norway pine, its tenacious fibre strong as the 
human skeleton. 

"For a basis of support," says the teacher, "we have limbs that project 
down ffavd — legs, feet, toes; and limbs, quite as handy, swinging at will in 
all directions — arms, hands, fingers. So a tree has root limbs for feet and 
toes, but not walking about as we bipeds do; and air- limbs and twigs, reach 
ing where it wants to. The ancient Hebrews, you know, aptly called man a 
tree, and a good man 'the tree of life' in the garden of intelligence." Here 
follow questions and answers about the various visceral organs and their 
functions, and when those of the stomach are reviewed, the teacher adds: 
"I want to thank the girl who brought us this white lily this morning, and 
the lad for his bunch of apple blossoms with some leaves attached. They 
will elucidate our subject. As revealed by the microscope, this lily leaf 
contains about 60,000 breathing pores to the scjuare inch of the epidermis 
of its lower face, and about one-twentieth as many on its upper face. On 
the lower face of this apple leaf are about 100,000 of those little mouths or 
stomata. You see leaves with their flowers are lungs and stomachs com- 
bined. Under the microscope our stomachs appear honeycombed, having 
little mouth pits, so to speak, not greater each than one three hundred and 
fiftieth of an inch in diameter. And this is no more wonderful than that 
color has something to do with floral fertilization, human digestion, respira- 
tion and even thought. What is the color of leaves? Green, you all say. 
Right, and I shall have to use so hard a word you will remember it — c/i/o- 
ropJiill, which means leaf green. It consists of soft grains or wax-like cells, 
and its function is to convert and assimilate crude sap into vegetable tissue. 
The color of the mucous membrane of our stomachs is a pale pink, or 
straw color, very much like that of the under face of some leaves, and like 



chlorophill is really a celled substance, cherr"' ../ aiding in digestion. 
Yesterday you told us our brains have convolutions of gray matter, essen- 
tial to the evolution of thought. 

"Did you ever think that the plants, trees serving as the greater func- 
tions, prepare all the food which we and the rest of the animal creation 
live on? Such is the fact. They extract needful gases from the minerals 
and soils, from the atmosphere and sunTjeams, refine, vitalize and recon- 
struct them into their own vegetable substances whereby animal life is sus- 
tained. Sometime I will further explain this, that you may better under- 
stand how essential it is that we keep the plant kingdom in tact, trees es- 
pecially, on a scale necessary to support the animal kingdom in mutual 
balance. Meanwhile I want you to study the beautiful correspondences 
between the breathing apparatus of our lungs and that of the leaves, and 
the flowers particularly, whereby vegetable species are propagated; between 
the blood-pumping forces of our hearts and arteries and those of the plants- 
pumping and forcing sap from the roots to the leaves and flowers, where it 
undergoes a chemical change like that of the blood in our lungs, and thence 
returns building up new life-cells in the body. Will you all try and glean 
some information about these things?' All hands go up. "Well, report at 
our next review." 

One of the best methods by which to develop the latent talent of school- 
children, is to set their imagination at work personating things in story. 
Nothing can so well fix the attention respecting their uses, also awakening 
consecutive thoughtfulness For illus ration, I cannot do better than to 
quote an article from the Arbor Day Manual of the Department of Public 
Instruction, North Dakota, happily entitled 

AN ARBOR DAY STORY. 
One morning early in May a family of rain-drops went sailing across the 
sky in a cloud. Pretty soo.i one of them rolled out, and down he splashed, 
right on the hard, brown earth. It didn't hurt him a bit, though, so some 
of his brothers and sisters thought they'd roll out too. And s'lre enough 
they did, tumbling over each other in a great hurry to see who would get 
down first. Down in the dark earth there was a little crocus flower fast 
asleep in her dainty pale green bed. When the first rain drop fell she woke 
up. She thought it was some one rapping, so she called out, "come in." 
No one but a rain drop could have heard her sweet little voice but he did, 
so he ran right in. The other rain drops weren't so polite as their brother 
and they ran right in too, without waiting to rap. When little Miss Crocus 
found out who her visitors were she was verymuch surprised. She sat right 
up in bed and threw her pale green-quilts aside and looked at them. But 
they kept coming faster and faster and Crocus thought; "Well dear me, 
you rude rain drops, you have spoiled my sleep anyway, so I may as well 
get up." She didn't say this to the rain drops though, for she was a 
very polite little crocus. All she did was to put on her green dress, tie oa 



89 TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL. 



her lavender colored bonnet and walked right out doors. When she got 
outside and saw the blue sky and heard her old friend, Robin Redbreast, 
sing his spring song, she was glad the rain drops woke her up. She was 
gladder yet when she saw what was going on around her. A tall fine-look- 
ing tree was standing near her. Boys and girls with hands joined were 
circling around him singing a gay song. Little Miss Crocus had never seen 
anything like that before, and she didVi't know what it meant. After a while 
she whispered to a slim well dressed-fellow in green who stood near her, 
"What does that mean, Mr. Grass?" Now Mr, Grass had been out in the 
world longer than Miss Crocus, and he knew all about it. He made a very 
low bow before he spoke, then he said: "That very tall gentleman is Mr. 
Cottonwood Tree. He came from the woods over there to live among us 
in the school-yard." Mr. Grass had just started to tell Miss Crocus all 
about Arbor Day, when who should come puffing up but Mr. South Wind. 
"Well, well, he said, how do you do. Miss Crocus? I haven't seen you all 
winter." And he shook hands with her so hard that he nearly shook her 
new bonnet off. "Nice looking young man is Mr. Cottonwood Tree; I used 
to know him when he was a little fellow and lived down in the woods, but I 
must be off. I promised to swing Mrs. Robm Redbreast in a wild grape 
vine today. Good bye!" said Mr. South Wind, and away he ran over 
the prairie toward the woods whistling as he went.— Grace Brown Put^ 
nam, Class of '95, State Normal, Mayville, N. D. 

SOUL OF SCIENCE AND ART. 

In ways like these, rudimentally considered, the teacher can evoke not 
only special interest in the study required, but an analytic habit of observa- 
tion, forestry serving as the open door to the temple of knowledge, where is 
revealed unity of life in diversity of form. To the teacher and pupil for- 
estry becomes the very soul of science and art, transmuting itself through 
all the animate and inanimate creation. It plays naturally into chemical 
analysis and synthesis, into mensuration, into natuial history, into political 
economy, into antiquary, into physical geography about configurations of 
country, leading inquiry as to its lakes and rivers and their sources in pre- 
cipitation and springs, and thence forests, whence all chief blessings come; 
into ethics and drawing and poetry and song. 

FORESTRY CHAIR IN OUR UNIVERSITY. 

Yet strange to tell, forestry has no place in our educational curriculum. 
It would seem that at least we should have a forestry chair in our university, 
but it is, legally speaking, ignored there, as well as in all the grades that 
support it. True, botany is ably taught there, but this cannot, as now ad- 
justed, cover all the essential needs of the situation. The nearest kin to 
it is our Experiment Station, a branch of the university, but the benefits of 
forestry are circumscribed to the farmer boys who, to their credit, heartily 
appreciate its utility on the farm. It is not enough to know what plants 
ar*^ indigenous or adaptable to ihe state, what their families and species, 



FORESTRY IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 90 



and how to analyze them. Mere book knowledge, comprising only the 
technics of forestry, though very important as data, is at best but an intel- 
lectual negation. The extention of such knowledge into the practical is the 
great need of the times. It is the prerogative of Minnesota to lead the 
union of states in this direction. In our university real, where we look for 
finish of scholarship, the following problems should be deliberately con- 
sidered, imparting practical information to the higher grades of our com- 
mon schools, influencing their action co-operatively, and that of the press, 
thence reaching all our people: 

What are the best ways by v/hich to produce profitable forest crops with- 
out destroying the forests? 

What can be done to harmonize the lumber interests with forestry, so as 
to perpetuate and enhance them? 

What methods can we use in connection with forestry, to conserve our 
water systems for agricultural and commercial advantage? 

What areas of woodlands should be appropriated to forest reserves? 

What further encouragement should be given to tree planting in different 
parts of the state, by way of windbreaks and other forest groups? 

What methods, inter-state and inter-national, can be projected by which 
to break and soften the cold and hot winds, so destructive to our crops as 
they sweep over the Great Plains? 

SOME RULES FOR TREE CULTURE. 

This fact has budded itself in the public mind, that beauty in art and truth 
in symbol aye essentials in education. Conceive of a school house attrac- 
tive in architecture, convenient inside, well lighted and ventilated to ensure 
good health, having the needful apparatus, including a library and cabinet 
of mineral and wood specimens. Is it yet complete? What is a palace 
home without a beautiful environment? Equally important for the 
public home, the school house, are pleasant walks, trees, flowers, vines, 
singing birds. 

SCHOOLHOUSE LOT. 

For a first class institution, the lot should not be less than an acre, but 
for the present, until community has broadened enough, we shall have to 
accept what is generally allowed, half an acre; and this even is a splendid 
advance from what we had when boys and girls, trying to educate ourselves 
in a seven-by-nine coup and a playground in the highway. 

SOIL PREPARATION. 

First prepare the soil. Our wild grasses bind like a wooden floor. They 
must not be allowed over the roots of the plants. Our tame grasses, clovers 
especially, keep the soil more friable and are far more pretty. But no 
grasses or weeds of any description should be tolerated directly around the 
young trees; not until they are large and strong rooted. 



91 TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL. 



HIDING DEFORMITIES. 

A few elms and evergreens and vines should b;; planted in the backyard, 
hiding the deformities of the buildings there, and sipping up all malarious 
atmospheres, and now and then one such tree quite central in the lawn but 
away from the house. Too much shade is unhealthy. The holes for such 
trees should be as large as a cart-wheel and at least half as deep, and 
cultivated earth used for the trees to start in. 

PRIOR CULTURE. 

Plow deep around the oblong square, say ten or more feet wide, for 
the main portion of the trees. Do not plant them there the first year, but 
raise something on this strip. Nothing injures a soil so much as keeping it 
barren. Plow again as soon as the corn or potatoes are gathered, and 
harrow fine. Plow again before the ground freezes up, and harrow. All 
this preparation, if you must plant the trees next spring, but another year 
of such culture would be preferable. 

YOUNG TREES PREFERABLE. 

Select indigenous and nursery grown trees — ashes, elms, box elders, 
white spruces, white pines, soft maples, etc. It is not a gain of time to 
plant bare poles with roots on them, nor will such ever have well balanced 
and pretty foliage. If you plant trees, say, three to four and five feet high, 
handsomely pruned a little to counter-part the roots whose fibers you have 
carefully preserved, they will, rightly managed, soon overtake the larger 
ones, and be ten times more valuable in "The sweet by and by." 

METHOD OF PLANTING. 

Do not expose the roots a single minute. Spread them out natural. Plant 
from one to three inches deeper than they grew. Put the fine dirt close to 
the roots. If the ground needs it, moisten -.vith sunned water. Cast on a 
layer of top dirt, Press it down. Another layer pressed, and so on, leav- 
ing an inch of lose dirt on the surface, the ground tipping toward the trunk 
to catch the rain. If you have put that tree in solid as it grew, so you can- 
not pull it up, it is "right side up with care," It is important to plant them 
thick for mutual protection, and thin out in due time, saving the fittest. 

DUST BLANKET. BEST MULCH. 

Experience has taught us that a mulch of finely pulverized dirt, often 
stirred superficially, is safer for our trees than six inches of straw or grass 
mulch left untouched the summer through. B" capillation saline particles 
in the ground, known as alkali, are brought up to the surface, hardening 
in the sun's heat. The crust during the drouth season will extend under 
ordinary mulch. Only by frequent stirring of the soil can it be broken up. 
This lets in the air absolutely necessary for root-breathing and digestion. 
It would be just as consistent to exclude air from the leaves as from the 
roots, and expect that in either case the tree will live. If the cultivation is 
deep, especially in the dry and heated summer, we open dangerous ducts 



FORESTRY IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 92 



in the soil, expose it too much, advance too rapid evaporation, and moisture- 
reserve in the sub soil is soon lost to us, and the tree dies. Tlie mulch we 
usually put around our trees more or less intercepts the rain from soaking 
down to the roots; the dry air, sponge-like, sips it out, and the shower has 
done less good than if that sort of mulch were out of the way. On 
the contrary the "dust blanket" allows the water to filtrate into the soil, re- 
freshing the tree. If you use the straw manure, or grass mulch, throw it off 
when the leaves show signs of wilting and dying; spade up the soil thin; 
moisten the ground thoroughly with sunned water, and throw back said 
mulch. If, to save the trees, you have to do this in August or early Sep- 
tember, it starts the sap flowing and cell building again, not allowing them 
time to ripen up for the winter ordeal. The dust blanket is not attended 
with so much peril. By superficial stirring with short fine teeth of the 
cultivator or hoe until the middle of July when cell-building is generally 
then suspended, the trees are kept in health, and the cells gradually ripen. 

DUTY OF THE SCHOOL AUTHORITIES. 

This ornamentation of the school yard should be considered by the district 
trustees just as much public property to care for, as the books and appar- 
atus within doors, and equally necessary in the educational work. A 
duty of rare interest also devolves upon the County Superintendent of 
Schools, to suggest improvements each Arbor Day, and urge all the teachers 
to have the trees and other plants in special charge, and co-operate with 
the trustees and community to see that nothing of the kind is injured or 
neglected. 

BUNGLING PRUNING. 

Many of our ornamental trees are seriously injured by bungling pruning. 
An idea prevails that nature does not know how to balance them. We can 
sometimes assist, but generally our interference is a botch. If we prune at 
all, do it for healthful conditions and beauty of form. Avoid anything set 
or stiffly artificial. If the branches are sawed off an inch or m.ore from the 
trunk, as is frequently done, it is impossible for nature to heal the wounds. 
Always prune close to the bark. The roots of a tree are proportioned to 
the branches. If then you saw off large five branches which nature cannot 
heal over, the roots at once begin to die, and the rotting roots convey rotten- 
ness to the trunk. The bungling pruner virtually stabs the tree to the heart, 
for the stumps he leaves on soon rot, and convey the rotting tendency down - 
ward as the rotting roots do upward. A severely pruned, or a badly pruned 
tree soon becomes hollow, and seldom lasts many years. Prune when 
the trees are young, and "be harmless as a dove." 

FENCE SCHOOLHOUSE LOTS. 

All school house lots should have neat and durable fences around them 
to keep out the cattle and other rummaging animals. Do not allow any of 



93 TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL. 



the trees to be used for hitching posts. Gnawing off the bark by horses, 
rabbits or mice, shortens a tree's life considerably. Only half the necessary 
amount of moisture and food that the tree needs, can be drawn up from the 
roots, if the bark is half removed around the tree. In a dry time such a tree 
may die at once or gradually dwindle away. It may be saved, when the 
wound is fresh, by covering it with a waxed cloth. An exeellent way is to 
spread some fresh cow manure on a cloth and tie over rather loosely, so as 
to allow circulation. But the most sensible management is to forestall all 
wounds. To guard against the teeth of rabbits and mice, tie any kind of 
paper — except tarred — around the trunks just before winter sets in. 

On some of our older school grounds are large trees, having cavities in 
the trunks, which, if not properly treated, will soon destroy them. Cut the 
edges of the cavity smooth and even; remove all decomposed matter; plug 
the mouth with a piece of seasoned oak, securely driven in; cover the whole 
with coal tar, and nail on a piece of zinc or some other metal, in such a way 
the growth of the new wood will in time completely cover it. Remember, 
planting trees implies caring for them. 

We cannot afford to delay the execution of this high responsibility. If 
not successful in the first experiment, try again, profiting by the lesson 
taught. If we would content the people, inspire love of home and country, 
if we would make the School what it ought to be — supreme in excellence — 
then plant and nurture trees whose whispering tongues will be idyls of mor- 
al beauty builded in character. 



M^ 



INDEX. 



Adaptation to Climate 23 

'• to Minerals, etc 24 

Air-Making 74 

Alkali 22 

Arbor Day, Plans etc 82 

Arbor Day Story 88 

Bark Wounds 40 

" Industry 52 

" Bound trees 43 

Beech 65 

Birds and Trees .66 

Birches, Profit of 54 

Broadcast Sowing 30 

Browsing Stock 43 

Capillary Force 9 

Charcoal Industry 52 

City Trees, Dying of 43 

Coal-Tar 41 

Compound Assimilations 7 

Coppice 51 

Correspondence 57-65 

Cranberry Culture 70 

Cultivation, Soil 21 

Cuttings 21-22 

" in "Water 45 

Cutting Trees 33-34 

Dew 68 

Disbudding 40 

Down-pours of Heat 48 

DryKot 42 

Duplicating Enstruction 87 

Dust Blanket 10, 9i 

Erroneous Notions 8 

Evergreen Seeds 16-18 

Evergreens. Screens 28 

" Killed in Planting 21 

" Size to Plant 21 

" Pruning of 39-40 

" in Oak Openings.. 34 

Fencing School Lots 92 

Fertilizers 34 

Fittest Selection 25 



Fixing Attention 86 

Flowering Shrubs 26-2? 

Food-making ^4 

Forestry in Schools 84 

Forestry in University 89 

Forest Gardening 5° 

Forest Keserves 79 

Forests, Uses of 84 

" Hygienic Influences ... 78 

Fresh Wounds 41 

Frost 67 

Frozen Plants 20 

Game 6? 

Grasses and Weeds 32 

Grafting 44 

" Forest Trees 65 

•* over Dead Wounds... 41 

Hail Storms 69 

Hastening Buin 7^ 

Hazelnuts 54 

Heartwood 49 

Heart-Booted Stubs 49 

Heat Accumulations 48 

Hedges 37 

Heeling-in 20 

Hiding Deformities 91 

Highland Kavines 76 

Improvement Cutting 33 

Insects 71 

Irrigation 1 1 

Kerosene Emulsion 73 

Knotty Trees 49 

Landslides 77 

Lavm Ornamentation 28 

Layering 37 

Legislative Action 85 

Lesson of Nature 12 

Letter to Governor 3 

Management, Seeds and Trees. 12 

Mixed Plantation 25 

Money Making 52 

Moisture Tests 8 

Mosses 70 



INDEX. 



Mulching Methods lo, 91 

Mutual Support 31 

Nature's Manufactories 74 

Nuts, Mana.crement of 18-19 

Ornamental Trees 26 

Vines 28 

Parks and Ueserves 80 

I'erishing Trees 42 

Plant Liife 4 

Plants or Seeds, which? 30 

Planting in Spring 20 

" " Clay Beds 35 

" " Sandy Places 35 

" " Wet Places 36 

" " Highways 36 

" •' Steep Places 3? 

" Method of 91 

I'lowmg Deep 8 

Pollards 34 

Precipitation 67-68 

Practical Forester 86 

Prior Culture 91 

Pruning 38, 39> 64, 92 

Heeds for Banks 36 

Keligious Vandalism 50 

River History, Recession 75 

Rolling Lands 76 

Root System, Suckers of 4, 37 

Roots in Winter 49 

Rodents, Depredation of 44 

Rotten Sinuses 42 

Rules tor Tree Culture 91 

Sand Dunes 35 

Sands, Holding of 35 

Save the Superiors 33 

Seeds, Precarious 12 

" Vitality of 13 

" to Freeze 13 

" Drying of 14 

" Quality tests 14 

" Soaking 14 

" Cottonwood 14 

" Pulpy 15 

" Hard Shell 15 

" Covering for 16-17 

" Sowing I5 



" Selection 14 

Seedlings, Tending of 16 

Thinning Oui 19 

•' Removing 20 

'• Culling Uack 44 

School Authorit ies 92 

" Lot, Size of 90 

Small Trees, Uses of 54 

Snov/, Utility of To 

Soil Analysis 9 

" Preparation 10, 90 

" Condition 15 

Soul of Science 89 

Sprouts, Preventing 3! 

Succession of Tree Growth 29 

Supplies Exhausting 51 

Swine Among Trees 43 

Tar and Pitch 52 

Trees , Thinning Out 32 

" Lawn and Street 22 

" Transplanting Large. . .23 

" General Planting 25 

" per Acre 31 

" Fitness of 55 

" Young Preferable 91 

Tree Surgery 40 

" Crevices 4i 

" Blister 42 

" Spoiler 86 

" Bounties 81 

Trunk Cavities 41 

Turgidity 7 

Utilizing Tree Crops 32 

Vapor Accumulations 68 

Water-Making 74 

.'• Level 76 

" Supply 5 

" Transpired 7 

Watering Trees 23 

" in Winter 45 

Willow Embankments 36 

Willow Ware 53 

Windbreaks, Perpetuating 31 

" for Horticulture. . 45-47 

" Insufficient 48 

Wood-Making Rate 30 

Wood Pulp 53 



Flowers: 

riENDENHALL, 

THE FLORIST OF THE NORTHWEST, 

Can furnish you with the Choicest of Flowers for 'Weddings, Parties, Funerals and 

all other purposes. Large assortment of fine Bedding and House Plants. Choice 

Flower Seeds, Send for Catalogue. Telegraph Orders for Funerals promptly filled. 

JMENDENHALL GREENHOUSES, 

First Ave. S. and i8th St., or CITY STORE, 412 Nieollet Ave. 

MINNEAPOLIS, MLNN. 



CATON COLLEGE. 

619 NICOLLET AVE., MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. 

makes a specialty of teaching Book-keeping, Telegraphy, Shorthand English and 
Normal training. Enter any time. No vacations. Catalogue free. Tuition rates 
easonable. 

T. J. Caton, Pbest. 



WHEN WE SELL 

A Piano or Organ, 

We have to add but a mere trifle to factory price because the sale of j pianos or 
organs is but one feature of our large busmess. To make piano or organ porcQases 
pay the whole expense of conducting our business would necessitate the selection of 
a cheap line of goods on which large profits could be realized. Either of the follow* 
ing departments is a large business in itself. 

Musical Publications^ Boohs ^ Small Instruments, 
and Band Supplies, 



PLINOS & ORGANS, 

Sold, Rented, Tuned, Repaired, Moved, Stored 



Standard Pianos sold at $io a Month. 



W. J. Dyer & Bro., 

Minneapolis. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



8£P 6 1910 

OSAGE, IOWA. 



I'i 


iii ; 


ii 


ni 11! 


1 III i 



002 818 599 6 4 



Why is this inland city so prosperous? It has not had a saloon for 
twenty years, but it has the best Schools, Churches, Hotels, Opera-house, 
Banks, Newspapers, etc., etc., than can be found in the North-west. It is a 
city that contains more specimens of magnificent evergreens, gigantic forest 
trees, and ornamental shrubbery, fruit trees, etc., that can be found in any 
city in this latitude. Why is this so? Because here is located the grounds 
of the 




OSAGE NURSERIES, 

Gardner & Son, Proprietors. 

Conifers of All ages, from one to thirty years old. Hardy Apples, Cher- 
ries, Plums, Small Fruits, etc. in blocks of many thousands. 

The Home of the "Gardner Strawberry". 

Barberry Hedge Plants that will not blight or rust, absolutely free from 
all fungus diseases, grown by the hundreds of thousands. Viiitors cordial- 
ly welcomed. For further informa'ion, Address, 

GARDNER & SON, OSAGE, IOWA. 



